Technology that's just been used to genetically modify a human embryo

[NSA TORTURE TECHNOLOGY, NEWS and RESEARCH]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/this-is-the-technology-thats-just-been-used-to-genetically-modify-a-human-embryo/ar-AAbwzyA?ocid=mailsignout

This is the technology that's just been used to genetically modify a
human embryo

klo...@businessinsider.com (Kevin Loria)

Researchers from China have just published a paper showing how they've
edited the genome of a human embryo, to try to block a gene that
causes a rare blood disease.

The ability to edit human genes and, consequently, actually engineer a
human being from birth, is something we've always thought of as
Gattaca-style science fiction. But this new development, published in
the journal Cell & Protein, shows that while many challenges remain
before this becomes routine (the Chinese team encountered serious
problems while working with non-viable embryos), genetically modified
humans may be far closer than many like to think.

The Chinese scientists used a fascinating new technology called CRISPR
to do it.

Jennifer Doudna, a Berkeley biologist who co-discovered CRISPR, was so
concerned about this technology being used on humans that in January
she called on American scientists to pause research before it's
irreversible. But with research like the Chinese study just published,
and others already being carried out, it may be almost too late.


"Most of the public," Doudna told MIT Tech Review's Antonio Regalado,
"does not appreciate what is coming."

The key to gene editing that Doudna helped discover three years ago is
CRISPR-Cas9, a technology from the natural world that she and
Emmanuelle Charpentier harnessed and that is now already in wide use.
Regalado describes CRISPR as a tool that allows biologists to
basically "search-and-replace" components of DNA, meaning they can
rewrite specific segments of something's genetic code.

Don't want the code that's related to a particular disease? This will
allow us to rewrite it.

That can't be done with perfect accuracy yet: CRISPR currently
successfully deletes target code 40% of the time and switches it out
correctly about 20% of the time. It can make other unwanted changes
too, meaning that now, it's largely unreliable and inconsistent. But
researchers expect these rates to improve.

Still, it's early — the Chinese team had a much higher error rate than
would be acceptable for actual medical use.

Despite these imperfections, CRISPR has already been used in livestock
like cows and pigs and even in monkeys, which showed last year for the
first time that targeted genetic editing could be done successfully in
primates. Livestock have been engineered to be healthier, while in the
monkeys, researchers modified genes that regulate metabolism, immune
cell development, and stem cells.

That being said, the human embryo tests performed in China were hit
and miss. According to the Nature News article:

The team injected 86 embryos and then waited 48 hours, enough time for
the CRISPR/Cas9 system and the molecules that replace the missing DNA
to act — and for the embryos to grow to about eight cells each. Of the
71 embryos that survived, 54 were genetically tested. This revealed
that just 28 were successfully spliced, and that only a fraction of
those contained the replacement genetic material.

Many of the embryos also had genetic insertions in unwanted places,
the Nature News article said.

The video below explains how CRISPR works:

Researchers are developing ways to use CRISPR to treat genetic
conditions like sickle-cell anemia and cystic fibrosis, and are also
experimenting with genetic changes that could eliminate viruses like
HIV. Even though viruses aren't genetic diseases, certain gene edits
have been shown to prevent the virus from spreading to new cells and
to "destroy inactive HIV residing in the human genome by altering
critical viral genes," according to a look at genome surgery in MIT
Tech Review . Experts even think these types of changes could
eventually help treat complex conditions with genetic components like
schizophrenia and autism, according to MIT Tech Review — though we
still need to understand those conditions better.

The Chinese study aimed to insert the correct version of the gene that
codes for defective blood cells in beta-thalassaemia, a potentially
fatal blood disease.

Designer babies

Growing an edited embryo into a full fledged adult human wouldn't just
remove a health problem — or, in the dystopian future model, create an
augmented human. It would leave lasting changes that are passed on,
something that many scientists say is desirable in the case of awful
health problems, but much more questionable in the case of
enhancements.

"It makes you ask if humans should be exercising that kind of power,"
Doudna told Regalado, of MIT Technology Review. "If germ line editing
is conducted in humans, that is changing human evolution."

Of course, some would say that that's the point, that humanity needs
to be improved and that we should hasten the process. Regalado quotes
bioethicist John Harris, who says "the human genome is not perfect,"
and "it's ethically imperative to positively support this technology."

Most researchers told Regalado that they wouldn't do embryo
enhancements other than the ones that would remove disease, at least
not at this point — but he also says that many stopped answering his
questions after he'd asked about the existing research in that area.

Luckily, in the Chinese study, the researchers used embryos that
weren't viable and would never be able to grow to term. The mutliple
problems they stumbled up on in their testing also indicates it's
going to be a while before these worries come to pass.

So how close are we?

Some skeptical researchers told Regalado that even though "we know
it's possible," it's still far too error prone to be considered
practical to use in editing human embryos for now. This seems to be
what the new study found.

But in the Chinese lab, and others, progress is being made.

Researchers told Regalado that using CRISPR right now, they probably
have to edit 20 embryos to make a monkey in the way that they want.
Guoping Feng, a researcher at MIT's McGovern Institute (who made the
video explaining CRISPR above), thinks that making a genetically
edited human — either without disease or augmented — will be possible
in 10 to 20 years.

Other researchers said going around the embryo stage could be the key.
Editing the DNA of stem cells using CRISPR, then growing and
replicating those cell into human egg or sperm cells, could bypass
some of the embryo problems.

While this technically isn't possible yet, scientists "think they will
soon be able" to turn a stem cell into sperm or egg, according to MIT
Tech Review. Those new sperm and egg cells could be joined to create
an embryo with the corrected or enhanced genes.

Even though the technology required to turn stem cells into those egg
and sperm cells is still being developed, stem cell expert Jonathan
Tilly at Northeastern told Regalado that his lab is already trying to
edit egg cells with CRISPR. Once CRISPR can be used more stably and
once the stem cell puzzle is solved — no small thing — that'll be the
key, Tilly suggested, to actually growing an animal from a stem cell.

Tilly said that once this is done with animals, it'll prove that it
can be done, but at that point you'd want to think long and hard
before doing such a thing with humans.

"'Can you do it?' is one thing," he said, but then you ask "'Would you
do it? Why would you want to do it? What is the purpose?' As
scientists we want to know if it's feasible, but then we get into the
bibigger questions, and it's not a science question, it's a society
question."

[BeamMeUpScotty]

On 4/23/2015 7:20 PM, NSA TORTURE TECHNOLOGY, NEWS and RESEARCH wrote:
> Even though the technology required to turn stem cells into those egg
> and sperm cells is still being developed, stem cell expert Jonathan
> Tilly at Northeastern told Regalado that his lab is already trying to
> edit egg cells with CRISPR. Once CRISPR can be used more stably and
> once the stem cell puzzle is solved — no small thing — that'll be the
> key, Tilly suggested, to actually growing an animal from a stem cell.

Then they throw all the "useless" humans into the wood chippers.....


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