​A CRISPR future with genetic editing?

In the last few years, molecular biologists have made an important breakthrough and have succeeded at altering genetic information that is part of our DNA sequence. CRISPR-Cas9 uses a variation on the naturally occurring antiviral mechanism that diverts parts of immune defenses of bacteria to create “molecular scissors.” With this technology, scientists are able to cut out strands of DNA and replace them with modified DNA. While the technology has shown promise in editing the DNA code, scientists are still trying to sort out the best way to safely target specific genes in the genome.

The uses for such a gene editing tool are many, and it has already shown potential in enhancing the lives of patients suffering from single-gene disorders, such as cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia and Leber congenital amaurosis, which causes blindness in children. Though researchers have so far succeeded in modifying non-human genes with the CRISPR method, there is hope that the tool may soon be used to edit human DNA and attack cancers, to develop an artificial immunity to HIV, and to allow couples with genetic disorders to have their own healthy children.

Another potential use for the CRISPR gene editing method is slightly more controversial; the editing of healthy human eggs, sperm and embryos to achieve desirable or enhanced genetic traits. Doctors, lawyers and ethicists alike worry that when CRISPR methods become mainstream, there could be an increased desire to tweak genetic traits in human embryos for non-therapeutic enhanced cosmetic and biological features.

For these reasons, the United States’ National Institutes of Health does not currently fund any human embryo gene-editing projects, and has called the use of CRISPR in humans “a line that should not be crossed”. In the United Kingdom, however, they have come to embrace some of the benefits that could arise from genetic editing, particularly for individuals suffering from genetic disorders, which is why they allow the embryos to be edited in the lab, but will not permit their implantation into women.

The question indeed arises - are there moral and medical justifications for modifying human embryos, or do the dangers of introducing the technology outweigh the benefits? As scientists work to develop the first CRISPR genetic treatments, it seems that only time will tell.