CRISPR: The Medicine of the Future

The scientific world is reaching new frontiers with the recent developments of the CRISPR/CAS9 mechanism.  CRISPR (pronounced crisper) is a new genomic editing tool which allows scientist to integrate or delete specific sequences in the human genome. In layman’s terms, scientist can control physical traits in humans. That’s right—you can now choose to add on all the physical traits idolized by society. The whole idea of picking and choosing traits sounds amazing, but let’s be serious here—is this really what scientist sought out to do? In the medical world, CRISPR plays a huge role in disease prevention and therapy. The mechanism is probably the answer to almost any health disease you can think of (HIV/AIDS, Alzheimer, Huntington, etc.).  So why aren’t we using this technology yet? Because as beneficial as it may sound, CRISPR also harbors the elements needed to do some serious damage. The truth is—the world is not ready to fully utilize CRISPR yet.

"Evolution has been working toward optimizing the human genome for 3.85 billion years. Do we really think that some small group of human genome tinkerers could do better without all sorts of unintended consequences (Collins)?"

CRISPR is a definitely a great medical tool, but is it an ethical one? Editing the germ line of an individual will make changes in all future generation off springs, every one of which, can not give consent. Before CRISPR can be fully utilized we must make sure that if any changes are made to a human embryo, those changes are beneficial for the overall survival of the individual, and the overall population. These changes must be made carefully, taking into account all possible negative outcomes of the specific genomic changes. However, Scientist believe that we can not predict future outcomes, and that we do not understand the true consequences of deleting or inserting desirable traits.

"Changing the DNA in reproductive cells changes not only the resulting individual but all of that individual’s descendants, essentially allowing humans to direct their own evolution. There’s deep concern that we’re not smart enough, let alone wise enough, to do that, as Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, told STAT this month. If time-traveling scientists had edited out the gene for sickle cell disease a few thousand years ago, for instance, humankind might have been wiped out by malaria; the sickle cell gene protects against that disease (STAT News)."

            Another problems scientist face is the fact that the current CRISPR mechanism is not perfect. It sometime introduces random mutations at off target sites. This means that the CRISPR mechanism may miss the trait it aims for, and introduce an unanticipated health problem in the individual. A bioengineering professor, Gang Bao states, “Even if on-target gene editing is accurate, the off-target effects could influence the function of many genes, possibly posing serious health problems. In the germ line, off-target effects might persist for generations and could lead to long-term changes in the genome” (STAT News). 
            CRISPR is available for anyone to get their hands on. If you happen to work in a lab, and you would like to experiment with CRISPR, then you can! This leads to another controversial issue. What if CRISPR falls into the wrong hands? Someone can literally turn this tool into the ideal  weapon for bio warfare. This is a huge disaster just waiting to happen. The use of CRISPR should be highly regulated, to ensure the safety of the population. This is just another step we need to take before CRISPR can truly be safe. 

            It is clear that the CRISPR method still needs to keep on its training wheels. We are not yet at a point where we can utilize this piece of biotechnology, without uncontrollably causing harm to potential patients. For the most part, I believe this tool should only be used on patients who critically need its benefits. There are many people dying of disease everyday and even passing these diseases on to their off springs, with CRISPR, this will no longer be a problem.  Changing someone’s DNA sequence to introduce better physical traits is unnecessary at this current point in time. It is important that scientist continue to work on ways to enhance the disease preventative efficiency of CRISPR in the hopes that it will one day save the lives of many people. Finally, we must also make sure that the use of CRISPR is highly regulated to prevent the technology from falling into the wrong hands.