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US Scientist Who Edited Human Embryos With CRISPR Responds To Critics (technologyreview.com)
Facing criticism from fellow scientists, the researcher behind the world's largest effort to edit human embryos with CRISPR is vowing to continue his efforts to develop what he calls "IVF gene therapy." MIT Technology Review: Shoukhrat Mitalipov, of Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, drew global headlines last August when he reported successfully repairing a genetic mutation in dozens of human embryos, which were later destroyed as part of the experiment. The laboratory findings on early-stage embryos, he said, had brought the eventual birth of the first genetically modified humans "much closer" to reality. The breakthrough drew wide attention, including from critics who quickly pounced, calling it biologically implausible and potentially the result of careless errors and artifacts. Today, those critics are getting an unusual hearing in the journal Nature, which is publishing two critiques of the Oregon research as well as a lengthy reply from Mitalipov and 31 of his coworkers in South Korea, China, and the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California. The scientific sparring centers on CRISPR's well-known tendency to introduce unseen damage into a cell's DNA.
[...] Mitalipov remains intent on proving that CRISPR can work safely on embryos. In an interview, Mitalipov said he believes it will take five to 10 years before the process is ready to attempt in an IVF center. The revolutionary medical technology being pursued is a way to adjust an embryo's DNA to remove disease risks. It is sometimes called germline gene editing because any DNA fixes a baby is born with would then be passed down to future generations through that person's germ cells, the egg or sperm. For its initial research, the Oregon team recruited women around Portland and paid them $5,000 each to undergo an egg retrieval. With those eggs the team created more than 160 embryos for CRISPR experiments. Mitalipov said his Oregon center continues to obtain eggs in an ongoing effort to confirm his results and extend them in new directions.
[...] Mitalipov remains intent on proving that CRISPR can work safely on embryos. In an interview, Mitalipov said he believes it will take five to 10 years before the process is ready to attempt in an IVF center. The revolutionary medical technology being pursued is a way to adjust an embryo's DNA to remove disease risks. It is sometimes called germline gene editing because any DNA fixes a baby is born with would then be passed down to future generations through that person's germ cells, the egg or sperm. For its initial research, the Oregon team recruited women around Portland and paid them $5,000 each to undergo an egg retrieval. With those eggs the team created more than 160 embryos for CRISPR experiments. Mitalipov said his Oregon center continues to obtain eggs in an ongoing effort to confirm his results and extend them in new directions.
With my cock and balls
Gentlemen, I give you Khaaaaaaaannnnnnnnn!
Build a baby workshops.
Even choose their first words.
French toast m'ladies
God will not be happy.
And I approve of CRISPR.
I created it after all.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
The first thing to go will be the foreskin—not because it's useless or unhygienic, but because it's sexually pleasing both to men and their partners.
Playing in the control room of a nuclear reactor.
"Gee wiz buddy, what do you think I could jump off that blue thing with all the lights and grab that lever up on the wall".
Literally no one has any idea what the long term effect of this kind of thing is going to be.
âoeTolerance applies only to persons, but never to truth. Intolerance applies only to truth, but never to persons.
... though you are the child, and your post is like a five year old evaluating what Daddy is doing in the control room...
Where do you get off proclaiming careful genetic manipulation is being done without understanding or thought?
Your post is just another example of fearful luddites refusing to take advantage of what is possible, in part because they cannot understand it themselves and proclaim no-one else possibly could.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
pirates poets paupers & kings,, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSgms-Ht_hQ .. don't forget; ladies & children first.. thanks again..
The breakthrough
You mean.... a guy doing something that's been done before but to a target no one else has used due to ethical concerns.
Unless there was some reason to believe CISPR wouldn't have worked on human DNA, this isn't a scientific breakthrough. At best it's a social one. Or possibly an ethical one, right through the floor.
Personally though, Bring on GATTAGA and super-babies. It will make us better. And worse, but mostly better.
What's the alternative? This isn't something you can stop, you can do it in a garage. And many people will be very heavily motivated to do it. We couldn't stop people from putting posion into themselves, we've no hope of stopping them from curing their children.
...in your dreams
That being the case, I think this is crucial research with enormous potential for good (as with any new tech, balanced by potential for harm). One of my children has a severe genetic defect, once that confines him to a wheelchair and will condemn him to a slow, lingering death sometime in his twenties. CRISPR is the leading candidate for treating his condition, but the odds are that it won't be ready for clinical use in time to save his life. His defect can already be detected in vivo and fixing it in in vitro is an important step before treating embryos in vivo that are intended to be brought to term. Saying we're five years away from clinical use of this technology and technique is the same as saying we are five years away from eliminating a whole host of crippling genetic defects.
I do understand and share the concerns about designer babies, eugenics and unknown long term effects of such medically unnecessary tinkering. But given the parsimonious approach the medical profession has to using new techniques, I think we'll see a well established track record of treating birth defects long before the industry embraces those techniques for selecting desirable traits.
I need a wheelchair van for my son. Help me get the word out. https://www.gofundme.com/wheelchair-van-for-jj
Hi, FCLM! How are the neighbors's goats and kids? ~ CaptainDork
Considering the mess that most people are already just why would anyone not want the species to be altered? When you read our history books what you see is war, invasions, thefts. rapes and all manner of crime and depravity. And now we have a scientists that hopes to make a few adjustments.
since we can genetically modify DNA someone/corporation/entity/group/government will do it. Like AI, Robotics, etc Genetic modifications will be done. We all need to accept that.
;)
It is also true no one has any idea where this will all go. And what the unforeseen consequences might be.
Just my 2 cents
Wisdom teeth. The Superior laryngeal nerve which loops around the Aorta for no reason. Cells that off themselves sounds pretty terrible, but when they refuse to die cancer kinda sucks. All the security holes that allow virus's to make us sick. Removing the code virus's have inserted into our DNA might be a good idea, but of course by this point we might be making use of it. (Yeah, btw, we've already been genetically altered). That thing were every cell division snaps off telomeres and leads to all the effects of ageing kinda sucks. I for one would like to be young forever. Hair loss, vision loss, joints wearing out. Pretty much everything that happens after 50. Hangnails, scar tissue, acme. I dunno about you but puberty could have gone smoother. I know it made sense back in the day, but parts of me really don't need to be THAT hairy. Really kind of a pain. While we're at it, I'm no longer hunting and gathering and don't really need this ring of fat around my belly. There's not days between meals.
Could we have some sort of bugzilla list with a bounty system? I'd really prefer the super-babies of the future to be open source rather than proprietary. Someone us don't want kids with mandatory apple logo birthmarks.
There's a lot more to submitted to the how incompetent of a bioengineer, errr, bugs list along with more than a few suggestions for improvements.
Err, eugenics wars... Whatever.
"In the future, women will have breasts all over." - David Byrne
Hey guys, it's coming.
But it's not 5 to 10 years. It's 20 to 50 years if that. The reason has to do with an extremely boring reason that every academic overlooks but is the primary reason anything becomes commercially available: QC, Cost, and scaling challenges.
There is no robust QC in biology. Even standard methodologies like antibodies used in diagnostics suffer from major quality issues, which is why most companies can't produce a diagnostic quality antibody and can't sell to diagnostics. It's still the wild west.
CRISPR in any medicinal form, be it gene editing or used as a precision drug delivery mechanism, suffers from huge errors and there's no way to check. The actual yield (never reported in publications) is between 10 and 40% even get the right edit, and it's unknown how many have errors afterwards. So let's just say 40%: you need to screen the edited embryos to ensure the CRISPR took hold and didn't cause damage, and today there is no way to do that as the embryos are each unique. Let's say you do 10; which ones got the right mutation and don't have the excess damage? There's no way to know, because you need to know the sequence and sequencing is a destructive process.
So without some way to perform QC on the embryo to see if it has the right mutation without damaging the embryo, no set of parents would take this option as the mom might birth a kid with numerous issues and no guarantee that the edit worked.
Combustion (AKA fire) is literally the cause of AGW. Guess the gods will have the last laugh.
So, put that in your pipe and smoke it!
If they make the babiies to be the perfect taxi driver, will they be called an Ubermensch?
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Creimer's new account is racking up positive mod points.
Hangnails, scar tissue, acme.
Ah yes, the troubles of adolescent acme: the condition wherein large round black bombs with fuses sticking out of them appear by courier service every day. Not to mention the anvils. Can't forget the anvils. Also an odd prevalence of skis, for a desert climate. Not sure what that's about. Definitely a terrible affliction, acme.
I agree with that other AC i this thread, YOU ARE one of the nattering naysayers. Damned near every thread, too.
CRISPR human beings may not get soggy in milk as fast!
Self-importance and self-indulgence is the root of ALL evil.