Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 243 posts

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

#171

Post by Alkhwarizmi »

MichaelMoser123 wrote: post #161

Wikipedia says that they first used viruses as delivery agents; now it's nanoparticles, aparently to avoid destruction by the immune system. Also interesting that CRISPR gene editing was also the subject of a patent war. Amazing stuff... (also it took them less than a year to adopt the nanoparticle trick to CRISPR gene editing. Things are moving fast) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CRISPR_gene_editing https://news.har…

The patent war is already a settled matter for the reasonable folks amongst us, nevertheless there are people among us who still believe that the criminals at Harvard have any stake in this patent!

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

#172

Post by awestroke »

civilized wrote: post #132
DoctorNick wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The record breaking temperatures that I'm suffering in the PNW right now serves as a grim reminder that we won't have much of a future, even with all this cool tech.

There are populated areas whose livability is threatened by climate change. These are in very poor, low-latitude regions like Northern India. Sorry to burst your bubble, but PNWers will have the privilege of surviving and thriving with relatively minimal issue. As always, the consequences of the environmental sins of the global wealthy, like you and me and most HNers, will be borne by the global poor in other places.…

I'm not sure your calm and comprehensive reckoning of your options will be comprehensive enough to have any effect on where we as a species are heading.

Because I don't shy away from facts, I am paralyzed? I disagree. If anything, I am less paralyzed than people who refuse to see where this path leads. I vote for green policies and try to inform others, even when I know there is no hope.

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

#173

Post by genezeta »

dcwardell wrote: post #73

Crazy genetics ideas I would like explored A modified tree that drops nuts of (nearly) pure graphite or some other form of nondecomposable carbon which we can easily harvest and sequester. Photosynthesis in humans to supplement our energy consumption. Shoutout to Knights of Sidonia. I understand the ethical issues surrounding the second one.

You may -or may not, of course- enjoy Daniel Suarez's Change Agent [1]. Probably not his best but still entertaining and interesting.

[1] https://isbn.nu/978-1-101-98466-6

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

#174

Post by esperent »

puchatek wrote: post #169
ausbah wrote: post #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…

If eating GMOs has you scared, this should be absolutely terrifying

So if I'm fine with GMO food (and medicine), by extension I'll fine with this.

... Or is that a logical fallacy?

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

#175

Post by karottenreibe »

alex_sf wrote: post #170
puchatek wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If eating GMOs has you scared, this should be absolutely terrifying

All crops are GMO. The only difference is how fast they were modified.

Are you saying that's not a significant difference? It seems to me.

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

#176

Post by pm90 »

WheelsAtLarge wrote: post #158

It's only a matter of time before we use this to cosmetically modify our bodies. I predict that at the very least we'll use this technic to change our hair color and eye color. I will even say skin color too, with-in the next 50 years. Most people won't use it but there will be an active market , legal or illegal, for the modifications. The Sci-Fi future is here.

On the contrary, I think most people will use it and those that don’t will likely do so out of religious reasons.

This is really great. Being born into the wrong set of genes seems like an incredibly silly thing to restrict humans to. Allowing humans to choose their appearance seems like it could resolve a bunch of psycho social issues and hopefully people can live more happy lives (although I am aware that these things often lead to as yet unknown problems of their own…)

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

#177

Post by laburn »

karottenreibe wrote: post #175
alex_sf wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All crops are GMO. The only difference is how fast they were modified.

Are you saying that's not a significant difference? It seems to me.

It seems to you what?

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

#178

Post by alex_sf »

karottenreibe wrote: post #175
alex_sf wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All crops are GMO. The only difference is how fast they were modified.

Are you saying that's not a significant difference? It seems to me.

Not really any more alarming to me than the initial domestication I guess. Manipulating the world around us is kinda our whole deal as a species.

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

#179

Post by hoseja »

laburn wrote: post #177
karottenreibe wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you saying that's not a significant difference? It seems to me.

It seems to you what?

Probably that letting the slow-GMO survive in a natural environment for hundreds of years does wonders for ironing out the really bad bugs.

I'm not anti-GMO but i've been more wary ever since I realized it will inevitably be used to make better citizens (and not by making them better humans).

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

#180

Post by hoseja »

_meqs wrote: post #164
nitrogen wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stop with the doom trolling and get busy inventing solutions.

Here's my controversial opinion - the best individual solution is to do less stuff. To me, it doesn't make sense that a problem caused by over-zealous production will be solved by over-zealous production. We can't really expect making more stuff to solve our problems caused by making too much stuff. The new stuff we make should be targeted at increasing the efficiency of production, but, while helpful, I can't help b…

By doing less stuff you're ultimately decreasing your evolutionary fitness, benefiting those who don't have such qualms.
Post reply on HN