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Pre-Existing Immunity to CRISPR Found in 96% of People in Study

xconomy.com

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Re: Pre-Existing Immunity to CRISPR Found in 96% of People in Study

#51

Post by elocinstr8t »

nickelcitymario wrote: post #14

So to the non-geneticist noobs (like me), is it correct to interpret this finding as suggesting that the promises of CRISPR may be dead in the water? Does this mean all the hype was nothing more than hype? Should anyone with investments in CRISPR be seriously looking at dumping their stock? Should anyone who was holding out on CRISPR to give us super powers / cure disease / etc start drinking copious amounts of alcoh…

I hope not. CRISPR has a lot of potential to change our lives. I thought they're actually a little closer to finding solutions to treatments of incurable diseases and giving us life longevity. Now I'm not so sure.

Re: Pre-Existing Immunity to CRISPR Found in 96% of People in Study

#52

Post by User23 »

nickelcitymario wrote: post #14

So to the non-geneticist noobs (like me), is it correct to interpret this finding as suggesting that the promises of CRISPR may be dead in the water? Does this mean all the hype was nothing more than hype? Should anyone with investments in CRISPR be seriously looking at dumping their stock? Should anyone who was holding out on CRISPR to give us super powers / cure disease / etc start drinking copious amounts of alcoh…

What the layman thinks of genetic engineering magic is going to have to happen in the germline. That means it's not going to help you or me or anyone else already alive.

Re: Pre-Existing Immunity to CRISPR Found in 96% of People in Study

#53

Post by nvahalik »

criddell wrote: post #27
nvahalik wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could be wrong, but this seems like a blessing in disguise. Maybe I'm just totally ignorant about CRISPR but from what I have read, it seems like this is totally wild-west/uncharted territory. This seems like one of those technologies that could have massive unintended consequences. Perhaps this is a _good_ thing rather than a bad thing.

When you see a hammer lying around, do you think of the things that could be built or the things that could be destroyed?

Personally, I make a mad dash to it before one of the kiddos decides to smash something with it!

Re: Pre-Existing Immunity to CRISPR Found in 96% of People in Study

#55

Post by kowdermeister »

naravara wrote: post #50
meowface wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really amazing that humanity is at the stage where we're intentionally evading our own immunity to bacterial components so we can repurpose the components to help ourselves.

What if it’s actually just time travelers coming back to code the immunity into us to protect us from the unintended consequences of gene hacking? (This is a joke, in case that needs clarifying)

It's already like hacking some alien computer in a short amount of time :)

Re: Pre-Existing Immunity to CRISPR Found in 96% of People in Study

#56

Post by User23 »

dogma1138 wrote: post #32
bottled_poe wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds way more complicated (expensive) than using a minimalist signature to identify cancerous cells.

With desktop gene sequencers becoming a near commodity product I’m not so sure. There are a companies that currently focus on this area specifically by leveraging the ever dropping costs and capabilities of gene sequencing by developing targeted immunotherapy solutions that can target the specific genetic makeup of a tumor from a biopsy.

This is all based on the assumption that our understanding of in vivo processes is as good as our understanding of in silico processes. It isn't. Not even close.

Re: Pre-Existing Immunity to CRISPR Found in 96% of People in Study

#57

Post by markatkinson »

meowface wrote: post #41
nickles wrote: post #18

This will likely not be an impediment to treatments based on CRISPR. The study has been available in preprint form for ~6 months on biorxiv [0]. At least some of the companies researching CRISPR were aware of this issue at the time the paper was released. It has since been mitigated, as specified at the bottom of the article. From Gaetan Burgio's tweets: "Published now in @NatureMedicine on #CRISPR & Immunity to SpCa…

It's really amazing that humanity is at the stage where we're intentionally evading our own immunity to bacterial components so we can repurpose the components to help ourselves.

I know right. I also just came from an article that had to use an electron microscope to photograph the accelerometer in our phones. I never realised how small things have gotten.

Re: Pre-Existing Immunity to CRISPR Found in 96% of People in Study

#58

Post by jamesrcole »

chongli wrote: post #22
nickelcitymario wrote: post #14

So to the non-geneticist noobs (like me), is it correct to interpret this finding as suggesting that the promises of CRISPR may be dead in the water? Does this mean all the hype was nothing more than hype? Should anyone with investments in CRISPR be seriously looking at dumping their stock? Should anyone who was holding out on CRISPR to give us super powers / cure disease / etc start drinking copious amounts of alcoh…

CRISPR holds way more promise than silly fantasies of human genetic enhancement. The most exciting and practical uses for it apply to challenging everyday problems: food, energy, invasive species, biodiversity. Besides, the ethical problems with experimenting on human beings are extremely intractable.

> CRISPR holds way more promise than silly fantasies of human genetic enhancement

I really dislike pandering, dismissive statements like this.

What's so inherently wrong with the entire category of genetic "enhancements" (changes for a perceived positive benefit)? You can't respond to this by just pointing out some proposed enhancements or motivations that are silly. I'm asking why you object to the very idea of any enhancements.

What about changes to make the following at some point in the future (these are just to give the general idea of positive changes, I'm not saying CRISPR could necessarily be used for them). These are things that in principle could be addressed by genetic "enhancements".

- stop people from getting diseases like celiac disease

- lessen our evolutionary desire for fatty and sugary foods (that no longer makes sense in the modern world, and which causes great harm)

- address some of the more egregious cognitive biases that cause so many problems in the world

Re: Pre-Existing Immunity to CRISPR Found in 96% of People in Study

#60

Post by Lukas_Skywalker »

markatkinson wrote: post #57
meowface wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really amazing that humanity is at the stage where we're intentionally evading our own immunity to bacterial components so we can repurpose the components to help ourselves.

I know right. I also just came from an article that had to use an electron microscope to photograph the accelerometer in our phones. I never realised how small things have gotten.

"iPhones are allergic to helium"

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18340693

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