It may sound like the dystopian fantasy Gattaca, but scientists have an opportunity in the near future to cure many diseases, eradicate famines, and revive extinct animals like the woolly mammoth.
Authors of A Crack in Creation, Jennifer Doudna, a UC Berkeley professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, and Samuel Sternberg, an assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics at Columbia University, are the brilliant pioneers behind one of the greatest biological breakthroughs of all time.
Crispr, a new gene-editing technology, “co-discovered by Jennifer Doudna, Emmanuelle Charpentier and their teams,” represents the holy grail of genetic engineering, even though many critics have dismissed it as merely “junk DNA” since 1987, due to the mystery surrounding it. Sometimes, however, the best discoveries hide in plain sight for many years before anybody truly notices.
Professor Doudna further refers to the process like having molecular scissors for mutations to be identified and replaced with the correct genes. Simply, cut and paste, “as if it’s an editor for spelling mistakes.” The science community recognizes the potential to revolutionize medicine and agriculture because Crispr works so well on plants and animals.
The possibilities seem to be endless and more discoveries are still being unearthed, but scientists haven’t totally perfected the technology. The wrong cut could be made in the wrong place, but as of now, it seems like Crispr might be the best way to cure single cell diseases like cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia, and muscular dystrophy.
Some of the additional Crispr benefits include “targeting cancer cells, growing human organs, killing insects, and developing disease-resistant super crops." But since genes usually have multiple effects, one solution could lead to another problem.
For example, a faulty gene that protects people from malaria causes sickle-cell anemia. If someone cut that gene, more cases of malaria could possibly result.
Theoretically, Crispr would find a solution to rectify that, too. In the plant world, the chemical that turns avocados brown is useful in the wild, but it doesn’t really do much as far as agriculture. In turn, Crispr would enable us to turn certain genes off with very few disruptions to the genome.
Yet, of course, great technology also has unintended consequences. Professor Doudna recalls Adolf Hitler in one of her dreams, as he is asking questions about the functionality of Crispr.
Obviously, the human race can never afford to allow this technology to fall into the wrong hands, especially not right now with our complex social realities and science out-pacing the creation of policy.
In a way, just like nuclear weapons, gene editing is not something that can be undiscovered,. That’s why the science community is talking seriously about the morality of editing embryos, designer babies, the possibility of war, and the importance of funding pure research.
Even though it’s only the dawn of the age of Crispr and the science is in the early stages, once this gene-editing technology is adopted worldwide, it seems like human suffering will be alleviated, many lives will be saved, and almost every domain within medicine will be improved.
In Changing My Mind, Zadie Smith says, “I find it impossible to experience either pride or shame over accidents of genetics in which I had no active part. I'm not necessarily proud to be female. I am not even proud to be human—I only love to be so.”
Crucially, the path forward isn’t predestined, but it seems like, sooner or later, everything imaginable will be possible, and humans will have more control over the evolution of all species and maybe bring the dinosaurs back from the dead.