Published by: Louise Tupaz
Date published: October 11, 2023
Time published: 12:32 PM
“Heroes, assemble!” This is one of the notable lines that most fictional characters, particularly superheroes, shout out when they are about to undergo their transformation—a transformation where the enhanced and better version of themselves shows up. The version where they would show their superhuman abilities to start a mission.
Much like these superheroes, perhaps in the future, living beings like us might undergo a transformation too! A transformation different from superpowers, of course. Something much more realistic, something much more simpler compared to sophisticated powers, something that could truly change the world for the good or the bad: genome editing.
Genome editing, which can also be referred to as “gene editing”, simply put, allow scientists to edit, change or manipulate DNA sequences in a living organism. Of course, it is as complicated as any scientific processes and also a topic for various perspectives and arguments but the progress, despite sounding futuristic, has been undeniable.
One development of this technology is the Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, often referred to as CRISPR, is a much efficient version of genome editing. It was first found out as an immune defense system but is also now a gene editing technology. Paired with Cas9, now as CRISPR-Cas9, the technique becomes even quicker and as revolutionary as ever.
Given these technological advancement at hand, we can say that life sciences would forever change in different ways.
Many scientists look forward to the good that gene editing holds. To them, it is one of the breakthroughs that could cure hereditary diseases such as heart diseases, sickle cell disease and Huntington’s disease [1].
In a conference held on November 2022 by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the Program in Quantitative Genomics (PQG) conference, David Liu, who was one of the speakers, quoted, “The mutations in our genomes cause about 7,000 known genetic diseases that collectively affect hundreds of millions of people and their families. So a longstanding goal of the life sciences has been to develop the ability to … correct as many of these mutations as possible, so that we can study or treat the broadest possible range of the resulting diseases [1].”
Not only might genome editing cure such diseases, it has also been vastly observed to improve the overall quality of life among living organisms such as plants. Nutritional enhancements coupled with genome editing improved produce—which may lead to success among economic and environmental goals [2].
Gene editing might be newly developed, but the promises it hold could lead to groundbreaking advancement throughout the whole world. From health improvement, other living problems such as poverty and economical issues, and the general sustainability of life in Earth.
Despite all of this, the other side for this topic remains. As many people feel positive to this technology, so does people who are still in doubt as to how gene editing will be used. After all, genome editing could involve human trials that may lead to misuse of such technology.
Many federal laws in United States banned gene editing as a therapy and as a means to modify human embryos and other human clinical trials. While there is no law for private labs, the US still prohibits this practice to prevent unethical researches to occur [3]. Not to mention, a few scientific breakthroughs had been used for the bad—leading to some of the most terrible occurrences in mankind.
As stated earlier, many opinion surrounds this scientific development as a new advancement in our sciences. This article do not even justify the amount of insights and comments regarding genome editing, just among experts alone.
For now, the only thing certain is that we are still a long way from attaining full enhancement in our overall life quality. Unlike superheroes, the transformation among all living organisms might take a little bit more time. Nonetheless, the future of this advancement will only be determined by our intentions—be it for the good or the bad.
REFERENCES:
[1] Feldscher, K. (2022). Using gene editing to fight deadly genetic diseases. Harvard T.H. Chan - School of Public Health. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/features/using-gene-editing-to-fight-deadly-genetic-diseases/
[2] Smyth, S. (2022). Contributions of Genome Editing Technologies Towards Improved Nutrition, Environmental Sustainability and Poverty Reduction. University of Saskatchewan. https://doi.org/10.3389/fgeed.2022.863193
[3] Global Gene Editing Regulation Tracker. (n.d.). United States: Germline / Embryonic. https://crispr-gene-editing-regs-tracker.geneticliteracyproject.org/united-states-embryonic-germline-gene-editing/#:~:text=US%20observed%20it%20until%202006,all%20references%20in%20national%20regulations.&text=Most%20US%20faith%20groups%20and,a%20new%20era%20of%20eugenics.
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