Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

US Scientists Try 1st Gene Editing in the Body (apnews.com)

Posted by msmash on from the big-step dept.

Marilynn Marchione, reporting for Associated Press: Scientists for the first time have tried editing a gene inside the body in a bold attempt to permanently change a person's DNA to cure a disease. The experiment was done Monday in California on 44-year-old Brian Madeux. Through an IV, he received billions of copies of a corrective gene and a genetic tool to cut his DNA in a precise spot. "It's kind of humbling" to be the first to test this, said Madeux, who has a metabolic disease called Hunter syndrome. "I'm willing to take that risk. Hopefully it will help me and other people." Signs of whether it's working may come in a month; tests will show for sure in three months.

11 of 74 comments (clear)

  1. Re:IQ by jellomizer · · Score: 2

    They are a lot of really stupid people with high IQ.
    Many use the fact that they know they have a High IQ to stop trying to learn new information because they got a number that said that they are smart.
    Also there is experience that will come into play, which has a larger factor for someone with an IQ 100 vs an IQ of 120 their experience, education and adaptability will come into play and override a raw ability to learn and information.

    If they are genetic traits toward IQ, I expect it would be quite complex not just a smart gene. However if found, it would make more sense to treat people with mental disabilities with an IQ under 60 so they can process information at a rate where they can be a productive citizen. Trying to boost a person with an IQ of 90 to say an IQ of 130 probably wouldn't have a real effect on society, as other factors could affect their lives.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  2. Dystopian Sci-Fi by null+etc. · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I tend to view news of such "wonderful and exciting" advances through the lens of wonderment, tinted with cautious fear. Can you imagine that through an IV, someone change the fundamentals of who you are, perhaps against your will? Someone could kidnap and drug you, and months after you wake up with an IV bag attached to you arm, you literally start becoming someone else.

    Are you too rebellious and anti-authoritarian? Here, have a timidity cocktail. Are you too smart and logical, and impervious to manipulation via base desires? Here, have the Trump cocktail.

    1. Re:Dystopian Sci-Fi by Merk42 · · Score: 2

      If it's that dystopian, they could just, you know, have the person killed.

    2. Re:Dystopian Sci-Fi by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 2

      This has already been done surgically -- lobotomies were used for social control in the 1940s through 60s. Read about what happened to Frances Farmer. (And no, it wasn't considered major brain surgery -- they literally did it using a tool through the eye socket: scary stuff.)

    3. Re:Dystopian Sci-Fi by interkin3tic · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Mod parent up. Biology is just not that simple. The genetics behind most brain DISEASES isn't complicated enough to begin to solve like this. Behavior is exponentially more complex than, say, alzheimers.

      There isn't a gene for "be republican" or even "be smart." There are genes that are known to lead to low intelligence, but your'e talking down syndrome level dysfunction.

      On top of that, the vast majority of brain development is done in utero.

      Suggesting that a dystopian government could simply reprogram a person using crispr is an order of magnitude more ludicrous than saying "Well what if a rogue state hacks the internet and makes all the planes fall out of the sky."

      At the very least, a dystopian government even GIVING YOU CANCER with crispr would require millions of dollars in investment.

      Rope, tape, a chair, and a baseball bat meanwhile costs maybe $10 if you go to a garage sale and I'm guessing $10k to hire some biker types?

    4. Re:Dystopian Sci-Fi by null+etc. · · Score: 2

      Mod parent up. Biology is just not that simple.

      That's actually not true. For example, see how the DRD4 gene could impart a propensity for risky behavior. This study was performed almost a decade ago. I have no doubt that further studies would reveal specific genes that could be manipulated to entirely change the behavior of a person.

    5. Re:Dystopian Sci-Fi by Mkkby · · Score: 2

      It's just code with a 4-letter chemical alphabet. While it may be difficult and expensive NOW, imagine the world in 100 years. Or 10,000.

      How long before those chemicals can be designed in CAD and precisely laid out by something akin to a 3-D printer? In utero, you say. Perhaps someday in printero.

  3. Killing is extreme by lamer01 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It would take 18-20 years to grow a replacement for the assasinated person. Why not just reform that person to someone more suited to what 'they' want them to be.

  4. Shouldn't've let the press get hold of this. by jddj · · Score: 2

    They're just going to get people pissed off when they dissect the guy for the research paper.

  5. Re:... and so it begins by bev_tech_rob · · Score: 2

    The Zombie Apocalypse is coming.

    More like the episode "And the children shall lead" from Star Trek TOS. Science tried to create a cure for old age and it ended up killing everyone EXCEPT kids!

    --
    You're messin' with my Zen Thing, man.....
  6. Re:The "first" in the US by Mkkby · · Score: 2

    Yep -- Pandora's box is wide open. No way to close it. What ever CAN be done, eventually WILL be done. Both great and terrible things will happen.