CRISPR

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After watching this video it really made me wonder what the future holds when it comes to genetic engineering. I suggest watching it as it explains it so well and it is a very well made video. I even suggest subscribing to the channel as it goes over relevant topics that are debated today.

I briefly summarized the video if you don't want to watch.

When bacteria survive a virus attack they store a part of the virus DNA in their own genetic code in a DNA archive called CRIPSR (Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats), here it is stored until the virus attacks again and it makes an RNA copy, a protein called CAS9. The protein scans the bacteria's inside for sings of a virus invader by comparing every DNA it finds to the sample from the archive, when it finds a match it activates and cuts it out. CAS9 is super precise and here's the thing.
It is programmable. You can give it a copy of DNA you want to modify and put it in. It is fast and it is easy. Offers the possibility of editing live cells. Works on every type of cells, even on humans.

Possibilities are endless. It has already been tested with HIV and it has been proven successful, CRIPSA could also defeat cancer. Just by engineering some of your cells that have been modified in the lab to battle cancer could stop you from getting it. Genetic Diseases would be able to be cured, if modified the CAS9 to do so.

Here's the thing tho, CRIPSA can and probably will be used on reproductive cells or embryos to create irreversible changes to the human gene pool. Modified humans could alter the genome to the entire species. Early on, CRISPA could be used to prevent children being born with diseases, but as it becomes more accepted people will start giving their offspring other traits. If you can prevent your kid from ever getting cancer, what can stop you from also adding perfect eyesight, perfect metabolism, height, muscles even intelligence? As genetic engineering advances we could slow down aging, or even stop it. Turritopsis doohmii is a type of jellyfish which never dies. We could just use the information found on the DNA on this jellyfish and apply it to our own.

All of this is on it's early stages but it is interesting to think about.

What are your views on genetic engineering? Do you think genetic engineering is something that should be approached carefully? What are your views on super humans? What about immortality or some aging cure?

 

I actually gave a presentation on this topic not more than a week ago, and submitted a paper on this today!

It's definitely a really interesting topic. Bacteriophages (viruses that will enter a bacterium and replicate, usually damaging it in the process) can also develop their own CRISPR systems. They use them to basically mess around with the bacteriums own CRISPR system, and this'll end up killing the bacterium eventually with enough disruption.

Now as for the ethical implications of the possible medical uses, that's something else entirely. Obviously this is going to be very useful and it'll cure a lot of people from debilitating diseases like cancer. This is a good thing! No one has a problem with longer life. I'm not sure living forever would be a 'good' thing though, I understand it's entirely personal. Cancer has only really become a common issue now we're living longer, and basically there's more time for cells to fuck up and grow too quickly. I can imagine some new cancer like disease would become a problem if we were to just 'never die' like the jellyfish example. I also feel like a lot of religious people wouldn't take well to this idea, since if we're not dying then I guess no one really is going to spend their time trying to avoid eternal punishment in hell lol.

There are many practical problems involved with living forever too - overpopulation being one of them. Too many people still alive, some want children still. There's not enough food or resources to feed and house all these people who 'never die'. I dunno it seems very impractical with today's technology.

 

Not a fan of genetic engineering. As you said the possibilities are endless and this doesn't exclude negative ones. Is it not possible that a super disease far more complex than cancer could be created by meddling with genetic code?

 

I think any time you start talking about restructuring DNA and messing with genetics(humans, plants, or animals) you're getting into muddy water. There's no way to know exactly what will come of this type of testing until it's actually done. I just hope whoever is doing these trials knows what they're doing. Or humans will start being born looking like this. and ain't nobody got time for that.