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CRISPR gene-editing breakthrough opens door to treating broad array of diseases

npr.org

41–50 of 243 posts

Re: CRISPR gene-editing breakthrough opens door to treating broad array of diseases

#41
post #35

I feel like I missed something, and now everywhere I look we have headlines like this. What's wrong with "CRISPR gene editing shown to cure Transthyretin amyloidosis in patient study" Maybe I'm now one of the old people who doesn't understand new usage of language. But I understand that usage dictates grammar rules, but I feel I missed something.

I think it’s just an oddity of newspapers. Even before it was called “going viral”, they’ve been a bit like that.

Re: CRISPR gene-editing breakthrough opens door to treating broad array of diseases

#42
post #13

Would CRISPR be the technology people would use to modify a bat virus to make it human transmissable? This stuff should stay in its box.

It will not stay in the box.

The allure of armies of supersoldiers without sense of emotions, conscience, and remorse is irresistible for dictators. I bet Chinese, or Russian militaries are already working on that.

Re: CRISPR gene-editing breakthrough opens door to treating broad array of diseases

#43
>Doctors infused billions of microscopic structures known as nanoparticles carrying genetic instructions for the CRISPR gene-editor into four patients in London and two in New Zealand. The nanoparticles were absorbed by their livers, where they unleashed armies of CRISPR gene-editors. The CRISPR editor honed in on the target gene in the liver and sliced it, disabling production of the destructive protein.

this is one of the coolest paragraphs I've read in a while. if it's accurate, serves as a great reminder that we're in the future as we speak

Re: CRISPR gene-editing breakthrough opens door to treating broad array of diseases

#44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Viruses are an extinction-level weapon. CRISPR? Not so much. (And neither are likely to result in an extinction-level accident; you'd have to deliberately deploy potent bioweapons in multiple places to extinct us.)

Yes but the CRISPR engine is passed on to offspring which raises massive ethical questions. As I understand it (and hopefully I'm not way off base here) there is a technique that creates a "gene drive" which is kinda like an SDK that is inserted into the patients genome which improves the efficacy of CRISPR. This code finds its way into the gametes which is then passed on to children. The children did not ask for thi…

The really great thing about us knowing how to read and edit genes now, is that if that happened we would notice and could switch it off. The stuff we want to wipe out using gene drives — e.g. Malaria — can’t.

There are things to worry about with cheap gene engineering, but that particular possibility won’t affect us.

Re: CRISPR gene-editing breakthrough opens door to treating broad array of diseases

#45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's annoying people get upset that people who do this potentially damage their bodies. First of all, it's that individuals body. They can take whatever risks they want. I don't see how trying to alter your own DNA is any worse for you than skydiving. Both have inherent risks, none of which affect others. Secondly, because there is no red tape or ethical scientific practices required, this gives us the opport…

> Both have inherent risks, none of which affect others. If you make germline edits, this does potentially impact others - you can have children who inherit the edit. They don't have any choice about that (depending on the edit they might randomly not receive a copy of the edited material, but that's luck) and its consequences in them may be undesirable even if the outcome for you, an adult, was fine and anyway your…

That is the line of reasoning that leads to banning abortions*. People have a right to alter their bodies.

EDIT: and preventing young women from choosing sterilization.

Re: CRISPR gene-editing breakthrough opens door to treating broad array of diseases

#46
post #19

The fact that we can apply these sort of therapies to an adult human who consists of millions upon millions of cells blows my mind. Having the ability to fix our "buggy" genetic code while we are alive is amazing.

You're off by a _couple_ orders of magnitude. There are trillions of cells in a human body.

Re: CRISPR gene-editing breakthrough opens door to treating broad array of diseases

#47
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Both have inherent risks, none of which affect others. If you make germline edits, this does potentially impact others - you can have children who inherit the edit. They don't have any choice about that (depending on the edit they might randomly not receive a copy of the edited material, but that's luck) and its consequences in them may be undesirable even if the outcome for you, an adult, was fine and anyway your…

That is the line of reasoning that leads to banning abortions*. People have a right to alter their bodies. EDIT: and preventing young women from choosing sterilization.

Precisely. Otherwise if we're going to walk the line of "well even though it's your body, 'us smarter people' say it's bad for you there for you cannot do it" will inevitably lead to the logic of dictating abortion rights as well. This is exactly the logic conservatives use with the Covid Vaccines but because liberals "know what's good for everyone," people shouldn't be allowed to make the "my body my choice" when it comes to a vaccine. Regardless of who is more logically correct in the scenario, the current stance of American liberalism is "my body my choice" only applies in terms of abortion. Which conservatives when they get in power again, will utilize as rationale to make it illegal as many have been doing for the past decade.

Re: CRISPR gene-editing breakthrough opens door to treating broad array of diseases

#48
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is the line of reasoning that leads to banning abortions*. People have a right to alter their bodies. EDIT: and preventing young women from choosing sterilization.

Precisely. Otherwise if we're going to walk the line of "well even though it's your body, 'us smarter people' say it's bad for you there for you cannot do it" will inevitably lead to the logic of dictating abortion rights as well. This is exactly the logic conservatives use with the Covid Vaccines but because liberals "know what's good for everyone," people shouldn't be allowed to make the "my body my choice" when it…

I didn't say you have the right to not alter your body, the public health requirements for contagious diseases seemed reasonable until people have started lumping gun control and "possibly altering your non-existent children"... maybe I'll one day feel as you do.

Re: CRISPR gene-editing breakthrough opens door to treating broad array of diseases

#49
post #35

I feel like I missed something, and now everywhere I look we have headlines like this. What's wrong with "CRISPR gene editing shown to cure Transthyretin amyloidosis in patient study" Maybe I'm now one of the old people who doesn't understand new usage of language. But I understand that usage dictates grammar rules, but I feel I missed something.

I know what you mean. These headlines read less like titles and more like lyrics in a song ("He was a skater boy. She said see you later boy."). It feels a bit condescending, as if it was aiming at children. I'd much prefer a title with a "person with thing does action" style.

Re: CRISPR gene-editing breakthrough opens door to treating broad array of diseases

#50
post #9

What are the limits of gene editing?

Before getting too excited, let's not forget the stories where gene therapy went horribly wrong.

https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/the-death-of-je...

> Doudna expressed similar concerns about CRISPR.

> “I hope that we don’t get ahead of ourselves with this technology. As exciting as it is, I really would like to see . . . people take a very measured and responsible path forward, where there’s careful vetting along the way,” she said. “Of course, the challenge is that patients are waiting, so you don’t want to delay unduly. But you also want to be safe.”

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