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Chinese Scientists Become First To Use CRISPR Gene-Editing On Humans (popularmechanics.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Popular Mechanics: A team of Chinese scientists from Sichuan University in Chengdu have become the first to inject a person with cells modified with the gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9. The trial involved modifying a patient's own immune system cells to make them more effective at combating cancer cells and then injecting them back into the patient. The Chinese trial was approved back in July, and United States medical scientists also plan to use CRISPR as an experimental treatment for cancer patients in early 2017. The CRISPR-Cas9 "tool" is a DNA construct that can be injected into any organism -- in this case, human immune system T cells -- to modify the genome of that organism. It works in three steps: an RNA sequence guides the CRISPR construct to the correct part of the organism's DNA, the Cas9 enzyme "cuts out" that segment of DNA, and then, as an optional third step, a new DNA sequence can be inserted to replace the deleted segment of the genome. In the case of the Chinese trial, conducted October 28 at the West China Hospital in Chengdu, only the first two steps of the CRISPR-Cas9 process were carried out. Immune system cells were extracted from a patient with metastatic lung cancer, and then the gene code that produces a protein called PD-1 was deleted by the Cas9 enzyme. PD-1 instructs T cells to stop or slow an immune system response, and cancer cells can take advantage of this protein to trick the body into responding to the ailment with less than full force. Once the PD-1 protein was removed with CRISPR, the edited cells were cultivated to increase their numbers and then injected back into the patient. This is the first of two injections for the patient, and an additional nine patients in the trial will receive between two and four injections of edited cells, depending on their individual conditions. Carl June, scientific advisor for the planned U.S. trial, told Nature: "I think this is going to trigger 'Sputnik 2.0,' a biomedical duel in progress between China and the United States, which is important since competition usually improves the end product."
Superhumans are not far now.
We'll probably figure out how to cure cancer shortly before someone unleashes an extinction virus on the world. This is probably why we can't find any alien civilizations.
Chinese science runs the gamut from "top notch and comparable to the West" all the way down to "my bottle of mystery formula will cure all cancer give me money now". This thing could be either one or something in between. I'll believe it when it passes peer review and gets published in a high quality journal.
Second thing. Based on the little that I've read about CRISPER-cas9, it's not fully under control yet. When they try to use this to cut/replace a gene, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't... aka sticks something where it isn't supposed to, or puts in a double length of the gene, or something like that. I'm not a genetic engineering expert.
Lots of work like this coming in the next several years. Hope it makes progress.
Edited title for accuracy.
What could go wrong?
Cancer. Death. Disease. Things we already have and could potentially cure with this.
People could die. People will die, with or without this. Maybe, just maybe, this could mean fewer people dying unnecessary deaths.
Is this a moon shot? No. This has the possibility of saving millions of lives. Millions of people who have the potential to make the world better, for all of humanity, for the species. Most importantly, this has the potential to make the world better for the people who don't die and for the people they don't leave behind. Soon, and it cannot happen soon enough!
If we don't advance science, we all die for sure.
Yes, it is a risk. All science is. But failing to bet is a guaranteed loss.
read this as: A team of Chinese scientists from Sichuan University in Chengdu have become the first to infect a person with ...
If the universe is someone's simulation -- does that mean the stars are just stuck pixels?
I saw the ugly truth of biomedical research when I was in grad school. TLDR, while every last stinking one of us has every possible motivation to spend EVERY spare penny not keeping us alive in the near term on the research (since it's the only thing that has the slightest chance of making sure we continue living past a mere 7-10 decades), there are 2 nasty problems :
1. Due to extreme amounts of government and institutional red tape, nothing gets done. Nothing. All those stories you read of brain implants? Basically never going to happen. That's because the way the legal system works is, institution administrators always have to ask "can WE be blamed if this goes wrong?" Basically, if the research kills someone but ultimately saves 1000 lives, our courts won't give any credit to the 1000 lives saved, it's all about slamming the institution for making an error. Also, the government has a very poor model for assessing results. If a drug works on cancer that has failed every other treatment, you don't need a trial with 1000+ participants. Cancers that reach that stage don't just disappear for no reason. A trial with 20 people is enough if 10 of them get up and leave with their tumors destroyed. This is a very strong effect and one that shouldn't require the one size fits all approach the FDA demands.
2. Most medical spending is on overpriced procedures and drugs and equipment that all suck.
"I think this is going to trigger 'Sputnik 2.0,' a biomedical duel in progress between China and the United States, which is important since competition usually improves the end product."
this guy might disagree: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
The objections of the Catholic Church towards a wider view of the universe did no longer existed during the Sputnik times. However, the objections of the religious and "religious moralists" circles towards gene technology and modification still linger around these days. Similarly, our firms beliefs of a fictitious demon that is the SkyNet will certainly hamper AI research at some point in the future. Maybe it is time to let go of the irrational influence of stories and start looking into future and the present with open eyes?
CRISPRs
Accepting the award would be Angelina Jolie
"I was instructed to read this speech It is an honor just to be nominated but I am sure he would very much like to thank those brave Chinese volunteers who really had little choice in the matter"
Do they want zombies? Because I'm pretty sure this is how you get zombies. :)
Catgirls!
Don't worry, the Chinese can't see you hiding in your closet to inject you.
You only need to worry when they make an aerosol form and send fleets of drones over after you.
I have some concerns, I would look out for.
- Abortions caused by the immune system (if you're cured of cancer you probably don't care)
- That the immune system in some other way goes rogue as the gene to slow down and stop have been altered.
There are great reasons to be cautious, but overall this is a great approach to dealing with viruses (including cancer). I hope that the methods that specifically target bad cells are the top priotirty research though. I liked the approach against the ebola, though I don't know how effective it was? Did people get cured? Sorry for caring more about science than people ;)
And then we'll get Miranda and reavers.
Best "Mr. Sandman" rewrite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
CRISPR-Cas9 ....
Bring me a gene
Encoding for a specific protein
Make a few snips at this coded locus
You work so well inside a streptococcus
Cas9
I'm so alone
Without your scissors in my chromosome
Cut me up and do it clean
CRISPR-Cas9 bring me a gene
CRISPeR, tastier, zestier, crunchier!
I am just fishing for points, so sue me, or mod me
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
sociopathic, genocidal murderers and their heirs will be all that is left
Even IF such a thing were technically feasible or to become so. There are still two really big problems that the hate groups never seem to even realize, let alone admit to anyone.
1) Who decides who is desirable vs undesirable? White supremacists would chose blacks, browns and yellows, pretty much in that order. There are elements in militant ethnic or religious groups who would happily eliminate whites from the world in turn. What you end up with is a MAD situation, with everyone (hopefully!!) being too sane to be the first to pull the trigger and making side deals with others in the room to gang up on the first one who does so.
2) There are many post apocalyptic stories and movies out there which can give us at least a passing notion of what a truly depopulated world would look like. None of the bigoted nutjobs seem to really think that through. At best, some seem to think this means law and order collapse and they get to take what they please at the point of the gun they've been hugging and whispering to. More likely, it means the utter collapse and likely extinction of the human race. ONE PLAGUE wiped out as much as 50% of the human race. We survived because a) People tended not to travel as much or as far/fast as they do today. The disease spread slower than it would today. b) Something like 80% of the population was involved in food production and nobody utterly relied on preserved and/or widely transported foodstuffs. c) The disease struck mainly the poorest and the ones living in the most crowded conditions the hardest. Most monasteries, for example, were almost or completely unscathed. Which also meant that the accumulated knowledge of the human race also survived. (and even if the librarian monk dies, the books are still on the shelves. If our electrical grid goes down permanently, everything stored electronically will be essentially GONE.) Because our civilization is so interconnected and interdependent, what *I* think the result would be:
A) Death tolls easily matching the First, Second and Third pandemics put together. It will happen within weeks, perhaps even days, compared to the months and years of the earlier plagues. That would eliminate 80+% of the human race.
B)There will be warfare as nations blame each other. Warfare that is quite likely to include nuclear weapons. That right there accounts of ~80-90 % of the human race. FOLLOWED BY
C) Wide spread and immediate Great Famine which accounts for 50-60% of who ever is left. FOLLOWED BY
D) Rampant dysentery and other diseases, caused by being surrounded by seemingly endless dead bodies and no access to clean drinking water. (many people in the west don't even know where their water comes from, let alone have the means to get there and extract it without power during a pandemic. FOLLOWED BY
E) A loss of human knowledge and know-how akin to the Viking sacks of the Irish monasteries, but occurring WORLD-WIDE. FOLLOWED BY
F) A drastic crash in world wide climate, perhaps even another Little Ice Age as we had in the medieval period. This may well account for the 5-10% of
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