Genome Editing Quotes

The genome that we decipher in this generation is but a snapshot of an ever-changing document. There is no definitive edition.

Even if we have a reliable criterion for detecting design, and even if that criterion tells us that biological systems are designed, it seems that determining a biological system to be designed is akin to shrugging our shoulders and saying God did it. The fear is that admitting design as an explanation will stifle scientific inquiry, that scientists will stop investigating difficult problems because they have a sufficient explanation already. But design is not a science stopper. Indeed, design can foster inquiry where traditional evolutionary approaches obstruct it. Consider the term "junk DNA." Implicit in this term is the view that because the genome of an organism has been cobbled together through a long, undirected evolutionary process, the genome is a patchwork of which only limited portions are essential to the organism. Thus on an evolutionary view we expect a lot of useless DNA. If, on the other hand, organisms are designed, we expect DNA, as much as possible, to exhibit function. And indeed, the most recent findings suggest that designating DNA as "junk" merely cloaks our current lack of knowledge about function. For instance, in a recent issue of the Journal of Theoretical Biology, John Bodnar describes how "non-coding DNA in eukaryotic genomes encodes a language which programs organismal growth and development." Design encourages scientists to look for function where evolution discourages it. Or consider vestigial organs that later are found to have a function after all. Evolutionary biology texts often cite the human coccyx as a "vestigial structure" that hearkens back to vertebrate ancestors with tails. Yet if one looks at a recent edition of Gray’s Anatomy, one finds that the coccyx is a crucial point of contact with muscles that attach to the pelvic floor. The phrase "vestigial structure" often merely cloaks our current lack of knowledge about function. The human appendix, formerly thought to be vestigial, is now known to be a functioning component of the immune system.

I'd recently co-founded an institute in the Bay Area called the Innovative Genomics Institute (ICI) with the goal of advancing gene-editing technologies.

Armed with the complete CRISPR toolkit, scientists can now exert nearly complete control over both the composition of the genome and its output.

with a DNA molecule mimicking the genome of a phage.

Even gene variants implicated in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s may have benefits: E. S. Lander, “Brave New Genome,” New England Journal of Medicine 373 (2015): 5–8.

American spy agencies seemed rattled by the experiments too. I was shocked when the next Worldwide Threat Assessment — the annual report presented by the U.S. intelligence community to the Senate Armed Services Committee — described genome editing as one of the six weapons of mass destruction and proliferation that nation-states might try to develop, at great risk to America.

have no doubt, this technology will — someday, somewhere — be used to change the genome of our own species in ways that are heritable, forever altering the genetic composition of human kind.

For his doctorate, he went to the University of Pennsylvania, where he figured out how non-coding regions of our genome, previously described as “junk DNA,” could play a role in disease progression.

Evolution has been working toward optimizing the human genome for 3.85 billion years,” says NIH director Francis Collins, who is not an atheist. “Do we really think that some small group of human genome tinkerers could do better without all sorts of unintended consequences?

Scientists were able to replicate this process—successfully replacing a viral sequence with other types of DNA and inserting that DNA in the target cell—making “genomic surgery” possible. CRISPR rapidly replaced older methods of genetic engineering, making gene editing cleaner, more accurate, and much faster.

The world has been changing even faster as people, devices and information are increasingly connected to each other. Computational power is growing and quantum computing is quickly being realised. This will revolutionise artificial intelligence with exponentially faster speeds. It will advance encryption. Quantum computers will change everything, even human biology. There is already one technique to edit DNA precisely, called CRISPR. The basis of this genome-editing technology is a bacterial defence system. It can accurately target and edit stretches of genetic code. The best intention of genetic manipulation is that modifying genes would allow scientists to treat genetic causes of disease by correcting gene mutations. There are, however, less noble possibilities for manipulating DNA. How far we can go with genetic engineering will become an increasingly urgent question. We can’t see the possibilities of curing motor neurone diseases—like my ALS—without also glimpsing its dangers. Intelligence is characterised as the ability to adapt to change. Human intelligence is the result of generations of natural selection of those with the ability to adapt to changed circumstances. We must not fear change. We need to make it work to our advantage. We all have a role to play in making sure that we, and the next generation, have not just the opportunity but the determination to engage fully with the study of science at an early level, so that we can go on to fulfil our potential and create a better world for the whole human race. We need to take learning beyond a theoretical discussion of how AI should be and to make sure we plan for how it can be. We all have the potential to push the boundaries of what is accepted, or expected, and to think big. We stand on the threshold of a brave new world. It is an exciting, if precarious, place to be, and we are the pioneers. When we invented fire, we messed up repeatedly, then invented the fire extinguisher. With more powerful technologies such as nuclear weapons, synthetic biology and strong artificial intelligence, we should instead plan ahead and aim to get things right the first time, because it may be the only chance we will get. Our future is a race between the growing power of our technology and the wisdom with which we use it. Let’s make sure that wisdom wins.

It is the impulse of science to try to understand nature, and the impulse of technology to try to manipulate it. Recombinant DNA had pushed genetics from the realm of science into the realm of technology. Genes were not abstractions anymore. They could be liberated from the genomes of organisms where they had been trapped for millennia, shuttled between species, amplified, purified, extended, shortened, altered, remixed, mutated, mixed, matched, cut, pasted, edited; they were infinitely malleable to human intervention. Genes were no longer just the subjects of study, but the instruments of study.

In this particular dream, a colleague approached me and asked if I would be willing to teach somebody how the gene-editing technology worked. I followed my colleague into a room to meet this person and was shocked to see Adolf Hitler, in the flesh, seated in front of me. He had a pig face (perhaps because I had spent so much time thinking about the humanized pig genome that was being rewritten with CRISPR around this time), and he was meticulously prepared for our meeting with pen and paper, ready to take notes. Fixing his eyes on me with keen interest, he said, “I want to understand the uses and implications of this amazing technology you’ve developed.

Pick just one trend that you consider unstoppable—5G, sensor technology, big data, AI, blockchain, quantum computing, nanotechnology, robotics, 3D printing, biotechnology, synthetic biology, renewable energy, augmented reality, virtual reality, satellite technology, genomics, gene editing, online education, etc.—and research how it is already impacting your industry.

In a short time, we had constructed and validated a new technology that, based on the body of research conducted with ZFN and TALEN proteins, would be capable of editing the genome—any genome, not just one belonging to a bacterial virus. Out of this fifth bacterial weapons system, we had built the means to rewrite the code of life.

This relies on the second component which is a protein that can act like a pair of molecular scissors, cutting across the DNA double helix. These scissors don’t cut randomly; they don’t just flail across the genome. Instead, they only cut where the guide molecule has inserted itself into the DNA.

Pasting a particular DNA gene/paragraph from a jellyfish into the genome of a mouse created mice who glowed bright green under ultraviolet light.

Genetic engineering in bacteria is easy. Their genomes are small, and it’s very simple to persuade bacteria to absorb new genes. You can generate genetically engineered bacteria in just a few days.

In 2001 scientists finally had access to the entire genome sequence of humans, our complete 3 billion letters of genetic information.

Researchers have sequenced the genomes of over 180 other species

Basically, if a bacterium survived an assault by a virus, it copied parts of the viral genes and inserted them into its own genome, as the 36-letter spacers in the repeat regions. This gave the bacteria resistance to any subsequent attacks by the same virus.

Charpentier and Doudna had liberated this technology. It was no longer restricted to the world of bacteria. The two women were highly attuned to the implications of their findings, speculating in the Abstract of their paper that their finding ‘highlights the potential to exploit the system for … programmable genome editing’. But to be truly useful, the system would need to work inside cells. Just seven months later, a paper from the lab of Feng Zhang was published in the same journal, which demonstrated that this new approach did indeed work in cells, including human ones.11 The ability to hack the code of life had truly arrived.

If we think of DNA as an alphabet, then the complete sequence of those letters in an organism can be thought of as its book. This complete sequence is generally known as the genome. The genes – the DNA sequences that code for Mendel’s invisible units of heredity – can be thought of as paragraphs within that book.

That’s what Boyer and Cohen’s innovation essentially enabled researchers to do – to cut and paste genomes.

As we marvel at the prospects of genomic editing, self-driving cars, and humanoid companions, we have to keep in mind that our present-day reality binds us to a certain amount of perceptual bias. Fight-or-flight may have kept our prehistoric ancestors from getting eaten by a saber-toothed tiger, but over time it has stunted our unique ability to daydream about and plan for a better future.

The phrase ‘gene editing’ is used to refer to the technology that has developed since 2012, which permits scientists to alter genomes with exceptional precision and ease.

About 99% of the DNA in a human cell is in the nucleus. Half of this is inherited from your mother and half from your father. But about 1% of the human genome is in 1,000 to 2,000 tiny subcellular structures called mitochondria.

And when you realise that men produce about 1,500 sperm every second,2 the potential for changes to creep in to the genome is obvious.

It’s not that I was categorically opposed to the idea of scientists and physicians using gene editing to introduce heritable changes into the human genome.

It is the impulse of science to understand nature, and the impulse of technology to try to manipulate it. Recombinant DNA had pushed genetics from the realm of science into the realm of technology. Genes were not abstractions anymore. They could be liberated from the genomes of organisms where they had been trapped for millennia, shuttled between species, amplified, purified, extended, shortened, altered, remixed, mutated, mixed, matched, cut, pasted, edited; they were infinitely malleable to human intervention. Genes were no longer just the subjects of study, but the instruments of study. There is an illuminated moment in the development of a child when she grasps the recursiveness of language: just as thoughts can be used to generate words, she realizes, words can be used to generate thoughts. Recombinant DNA had made the language of genetics recursive. Biologists had spent decades trying to interrogate the nature of the gene-but now it was the gene that could be used to interrogate biology. We had graduated, in short, from thinking about genes, to thinking in genes.

As long as the genetic code for a particular trait is known, scientists can use CRISPR to insert, edit, or delete the associated gene in virtually any living plant’s or animal’s genome.

While impressive, their experiment is not entirely comparable to the mammoth deextinction challenge, as all 13,000 edits targeted the same change in a gene that occurs in 3,000 duplicated copies across the genome. Also, 13,000 edits is a lot fewer than the 1.5 million edits necessary to cut-and-paste our way from an Asian elephant genome to a mammoth genome.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist or a Bible scholar to see the repercussions of tampering with genomes, editing DNA, and creating Artificial Intelligence (AI) atrocities that are thrusting us back to the days of Noah, threatening our very existence. This holocaust is fast approaching and if not thwarted, the disastrous implications for all people on earth could be irrevocable.

Deep Simplicity: Bringing Order to Chaos and Complexity John Gribbin, Random House (2005) F.F.I.A.S.C.O.: The Inside Story of a Wall Street Trader Frank Partnoy, Penguin Books (1999) Ice Age John & Mary Gribbin, Barnes & Noble (2002) How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World & Everything in It Arthur Herman, Three Rivers Press (2002) Models of My Life Herbert A. Simon The MIT Press (1996) A Matter of Degrees: What Temperature Reveals About the Past and Future of Our Species, Planet, and Universe Gino Segre, Viking Books (2002) Andrew Carnegie Joseph Frazier Wall, Oxford University Press (1970) Guns Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies Jared M. Diamond, W. W. Norton & Company The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal Jared Nt[. Diamond, Perennial (1992) Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion Robert B. Cialdini, Perennial Currents (1998) The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin Benjamin franklin, Yale Nota Bene (2003) Living Within Limits: Ecology, Economics, and Population Taboos Garrett Hardin, Oxford University Press (1995) The Selfish Gene Richard Dawkins, Oxford University Press (1990) Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller Sr. Ron Chernow, Vintage (2004) The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor David Sandes, W. W Norton & Company (1998) The Warren Buffett Portfolio: Mastering the Power of the Focus Investment Strategist Robert G. Hagstrom, Wiley (2000) Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters Matt Ridley, Harper Collins Publishers (2000) Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giz.ting In Roger Fisher, William, and Bruce Patton, Penguin Books Three Scientists and Their Gods: Looking for Meaning in an Age of Information Robert Wright, Harper Collins Publishers (1989) Only the Paranoid Survive Andy Grove, Currency (1996 And a few from your editor... Les Schwab: Pride in Performance Les Schwab, Pacific Northwest Books (1986) Men and Rubber: The Story of Business Harvey S. Firestone, Kessinger Publishing (2003) Men to Match My Mountains: The Opening of the Far West, 1840-1900 Irving Stone, Book Sales (2001)

The human touch is there, it has worked for long, sitting by the patient’s bedside and trying to lift their spirits. Although with the advances of human genomics, parts of the process have become automated, medical professionals cannot practice the way they used to, it is no longer the same human contact that we had before. Patients usually get interested in new technologies first; therefore there is a constant request that physicians start using them. Medical professionals don’t have to get detailed training about how magnetic resonance imaging works, they just need to know why it works.

Open the "book of life" and you will see a "text" of about 3 billion letters, filling about 10,000 copies of the new York Times Sunday edition. Each line looks something like this: TCTAGAAACA ATTGCCATTG TTTCTTCTCA TTTTCTTTTC ACGGGCAGCC These letters, abbreviations of the molecules making up the DNA, could easily mean that the anonymous donor whose genome has been sequenced will be bald by the age of fifty. Or they could reveal that he will develop Alzheimer's disease by seventy. We are repeatedly told that everything from our personality to future medical history is encoded in this book. Can you read it? I doubt it. Let me share a secret with you: Neither can biologists or doctors.

The poet drafts his work as a writer but edits it as a sculptor, with his pen as a chisel and his mind a hammer.

Fly genomes contain around 14,000 genes spread out across hundreds of millions of DNA base pairs. The human genome comprises about 3.2 billion letters of DNA,

had constructed and validated a new technology that, based on the body of research conducted with ZFN and TALEN proteins, would be capable of editing the genome—any genome, not just one belonging to a bacterial

Retroviruses, a large class of viruses that includes the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), do the same thing in humans, splicing their genetic material into the genome of infected cells. This pernicious property makes retroviruses especially challenging to eradicate, so much so that they have left an outsize mark on our species. A full 8 percent of the human genome—over 250 million letters of DNA—is a remnant of ancient retroviruses that infected ancestors of our species millennia ago.

the first monkeys were born with genomes that had been rewritten through precision gene editing, bringing the steady march of CRISPR research right to Homo sapiens’ evolutionary front door.

We propose an alternative methodology based on RNA-programmed Cas9 that could offer considerable potential for gene-targeting and genome-editing applications.

For example, virus-resistant genes could be inserted in the genome of a species that is dying from an infection, or genetic susceptibility to a disease could be altered with precision gene editing,