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'Rogue Scientists' Could Exploit Gene Editing Technology, Experts Warn (theguardian.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the unintended-consequences dept.

A senior geneticist and a bioethicist warned on Friday that they fear "rogue scientists" operating outside the bounds of law, and agreed with a US intelligence chief's assertion this week that gene editing technology could have huge, and potentially dangerous, consequences. Recent advances in genetics allow scientists to edit DNA quickly and accurately, making research into diseases, such as cystic fibrosis and cancer, easier than ever before. But researchers increasingly caution that they have to work with extreme care, for fear that gene editing could be deployed as bioterrorism or, in a more likely scenario, result in an accident that could make humans more susceptible to disease rather than less.

3 of 213 comments (clear)

  1. vague handwaving by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    “The infectious agent responsible for bubonic plague, if altered through Crispr,” he said, “could potentially be used as a WMD. Currently, we have effective treatment against it. But if it were altered, it could potentially become resistant to these treatments and thus be deadly.”

    There are plenty of infectious agents that we don't have treatments against, so why would anybody go through the trouble of modifying bubonic plague, instead of just picking one of those? Why bubonic plague, an organism that is transmitted by fleas? And why haven't terrorists used biological weapons successfully before if there is such a risk from them?

    Furthermore, for the kinds of changes a terrorist would want to make to bacteria or viruses, they wouldn't need CRISPR; CRISPR is mostly useful for targeted modifications in higher organisms.

    The whole thing is just homeland security and bioethicists trying to get attention and funding; it's bullshit.

    1. Re:vague handwaving by JoeMerchant · · Score: 3, Interesting

      There are plenty of infectious agents that we don't have treatments against, so why would anybody go through the trouble of modifying bubonic plague, instead of just picking one of those? Why bubonic plague, an organism that is transmitted by fleas?

      A. because it sounds scary, most people know something about the Black Death.

      B. because of plausible deniability, it is widespread in the environment and might mutate on its own.

      C. because of limited scope and speed of spread (flea vector), what's the point in killing _everyone_ when you can just kill mostly your enemies?

      And why haven't terrorists used biological weapons successfully before if there is such a risk from them?

      Are you sure they haven't?

  2. Re:Overblown by JoeMerchant · · Score: 5, Interesting

    We've got the assembler / disassembler, but are clueless as to how 99.9% of the code works and thus can't even begin to make a meaningful compiler.