CRISPR is a powerful laboratory tool that lets us replace a particular DNA sequence with new DNA. It was developed from a complex enzyme that bacteria use to prevent viral attacks by recognizing and cutting foreign DNA. Researchers discovered that this enzyme works incredibly well in other systems, like animal and human embryos. We’re not using sledgehammers to engineer the genome anymore. We’re using scalpels.
CRISPR was successfully adapted for genome editing in 2013 and has since become a standard laboratory technique. Carleton students use CRISPR technology in molecular biology and genetics labs to induce mutations in model organisms like yeast. It has significantly sped up the pace of doing research at the genome level.
This technology has amazing potential. For example, pigs might be a great source of transplant organs for humans—they are a similar size and physiology to humans—but pig organs have a number of viruses incorporated into their genome. A research group is trying to use CRISPR to destroy those viruses so they wouldn’t be transferred to us.
In the past there’s been a line in the sand for doing research with human subjects: we haven’t changed the germline [cells that pass genetic information on to offspring]. Manipulating somatic cells has been fine because those changes won’t get passed down through reproduction. If you engineer the germline, that’s an ethical quandary, because now you’re affecting all subsequent generations.
As with all ethical dilemmas, we must ask whether the greater good outweighs the possible risks. It’s incumbent upon researchers to recognize the risks associated with CRISPR, but scientists don’t drive this conversation. Everybody needs to weigh in—granting agencies, elected representatives, and the public. We need to discuss the phenomenal potential of technology to cure diseases and alleviate pain
and suffering.
I remember the controversy about “test tube babies,” or in vitro fertilization, now a pretty standard technique. It was the same when recombinant DNA technology came out. Safeguards were put into place, and the huge research and medical upsides ultimately outweighed the possible risks. I’m optimistic that the same will happen with CRISPR.