My current event is on editing genes.

Chinese Scientists Edit Genes of Human Embryos, Raising Concerns

By Gina Kolata

The New York Times

April 23, 2015

Aurora

Throughout 2015 experiments about editing genes have been going on. Though other scientists around the world had talked about doing gene editing experiments, this article is about the Chinese scientists who attempted to edit genes. These experiments will affect many people when there is a definite way to edit genes. Many people have cancerous genes in their DNA and after scientists find a way to edit genes we will have the potential opportunity to take these cancerous genes (and other diseases) out of people’s DNA before they are born. Editing genes could benefit everyone. The recent experiments took place in China. What they were hoping for was all of the cells to be changed so there would be no diseases but the DNA of the embryo would stay unaltered. Out of the 85 embryos they experimented on, none of them turned out the way that they wanted. In the Chinese experiments defective embryos were used so that a baby would never be born. Other scientists helped along the way, but the research was being done primarily by Chinese scientists. In order to edit genes the scientists use the CRISPR method.

“This is an unsafe procedure and should not be practiced at this time, and perhaps never.” - Dr. George Q. Daley

This quote reflects what most scientists feel about editing genes. Not only are people worried about the dangers of this type of experiment, they are worried about the ethics involved with genetic experimentation.

Editing genes is news that is very important. Maybe not to the people in the world who don’t have a disease that is killing them. Peter Warlick, a very close family friend has lou gehrig's disease. His children are four and six. He has two years to live, and in those two years he will get very sick. Imagine what he would do to not have lou gehrig's disease. I know that editing genes was not being experimented on before he was born, but this shows how important editing genes is. So many people watch their friends and families die from diseases. Now, we are on the edge of finding a way to make editing genes possible. I chose this article and topic because sooner or later scientists will find a way to edit genes. Scientists will be able to save many people’s lives before they are even alive.

I believe that editing genes is amazing. Being able to edit a gene that has a disease is remarkable. Other people think that editing genes is dangerous and unethical. Obviously it is dangerous, but that shouldn’t mean that scientists shouldn’t pursue this area of science. What experiment has had no danger in it? When scientists know how to edit genes without harming an embryo, there will be babies who are born with no diseases because the gene that carried a disease will have been taken out of them.

Chinese scientists did an experiment on editing genes. Even though they did not get what they were hoping for, every time scientists do more experiments on editing genes we learn more. Just like Jonas Salk’s experiments with finding a vaccine for polio, many people are fearing the outcomes of editing genes. I think that editing genes will be an amazing scientific discovery.

URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/24/health/chinese-scientists-edit-genes-of-human-embryos-raising-concerns.html?_r=2  

GENE-EDITING Through CRISPR

Miles Hagedorn

THE GENE HACKERS

A powerful new technology enables us to manipulate our DNA more easily than ever before.

By Michael Specter

Source:http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/11/16/the-gene-hackers

November 16, 2015

Did you ever imagine that one day people could alter human genes or bring Woolly Mammoths back to life? Now scientists believe that this may be possible. Scientists have discovered a gene editing tool called CRISPR, which stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats. Scientists have been researching CRISPR in bacteria since the 1980s. Scientists believed that bacteria kept records of past diseases in order to repel the disease when it was next exposed to the virus. This is a lot like the human immune system.  Specifically, scientists discovered that bacteria use a combination of guide RNA and a protein that acts like scissors to cut up DNA of the virus.  The resulting DNA sequences are called CRISPR.  The protein that breaks the DNA strands at a specific spot is called Cas9.  It wasn't until 2012, that Jennifer Doudna and her lab team demonstrated that CRISPR could edit “purified” DNA.  Soon after, Feng Zhang and George Church demonstrated that CRISPR could be used to edit human cells.  After these discoveries, scientists around the country began to use CRISPR/Cas9 in laboratories on different organisms. Using CRISPR/Cas9, scientists can edit and remove genes in any animal, including humans! The use of CRISPR/Cas9 is better than the old methods of gene editing because it is simple, cheap, and easy to use. Over the past few years, scientists have been testing CRISPR/Cas9 on mice and other animals similar to humans. In addition, Chinese researchers attempted to repair the gene responsible for a rare, fatal blood disorder in 86 human embryos using CRISPR. This research was very controversial because some scientists thought that this was unethical. However, others believed that the experiment was important and conducted well. The discovery of using CRISPR/Cas9 to edit genes is truly amazing, but there are also many ethical questions. Many scientists are worried about CRISPR/Cas9, because it is so cheap and easy to use, and that it may be used in unethical ways.

I chose this article about CRISPR because this subject sounded very interesting and it was chosen as the “Breakthrough of the Year” by the editors of The Journal of Science. I first watched a video about CRISPR on Science Daily and this sparked my interest in this subject. I then searched for a reliable source about the CRISPR technology. I found a detailed article from The New Yorker. This subject grabbed my attention because I didn’t know much about the ability to edit genes.  My Grandfather passed away of Parkinson's at only 63 and the fact that we will soon have the ability to hopefully cure diseases through the use of CRISPR/Cas9 is amazing.  I learned about the complex history of gene editing, the science behind CRISPR, and the financial importance of the discovery of CRISPR. I also learned to better understand the ethical problems of many great scientific discoveries such as DNA manipulation and the atomic bomb. This article connects to our study of cells at school.  Learning about CRISPR involves understanding the structure of cells and the DNA inside them.  CRISPR gene editing has already been affecting many aspects of our society and scientific knowledge.  CRISPR was used to alter 62 genes in pig embryos, creating animals that could hopefully carry human organs for transplant. Researchers have also used CRISPR to develop better biofuels, and make crops more pest and drought resistant. Researchers are also contemplating how to use CRISPR to eliminate mosquitoes carrying malaria and target invasive species like the Asian Carp.  I knew that The New Yorker was a well known magazine. After I read the article, I listened to a TED Talks given by the Co-Inventor of the CRISPR titled, “We can now edit our DNA. But let's do it wisely.”  This helped me make sure that the information from The New Yorker article was reliable and also to better understand the complicated scientific subject. I agree with the author of this article that if CRISPR can help find a cure for cancer or other diseases, that the fear about this discovery will most likely be gone. Learning about this CRISPR technology makes me feel hopeful for what the future has to bring using this discovery.

LeeF Gene-editing

Gene-editing

Scientists may have found a possible cure for a disorder that is common in ten year-old boys. Using a new gene-editing technique, called Crispr-Cas9, they experimented on lab rats. They have not yet tried it on humans, but they are hopeful that it will work.

The Crispr-Cas9 technique is a way of cutting out the defective part of a gene. The defective part is a stretch of DNA called an exon. When the exon is cut out, the muscle cells are able to make a protein that will increase muscle strength. This worked on mice. The next step is to see if it will work on humans.

Three teams, from Duke, Harvard, and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, were working individually on this cure. They discovered it around the same time, on December 31, 2015. They were not the only groups researching this idea, but they were the first to prove that it works, at least on mice. Scientists are not sure how the human immune system will react to this technique. They do know that it will take a lot of time to get to that stage.

The people to which this breakthrough is targeted are patients with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy is caused by a gene defect, which affects a protein called dystrophin that helps your muscles function. It affects 1 out of every 3500 boys younger than ten, forcing them into wheelchairs before they’re even pre-teens, and putting them at risk of breathing problems or early death. Scientists have been working on finding a cure for a long time, with no luck. Now that this technique is proven to work, there is hope that it could work on other diseases too.  

I chose this article because I didn’t know much about gene-editing, or about genes at all, and I wanted to learn more. I found it on a New York Times website under science. I learned a lot from it, including what genes are, how they affect who we are, and the process of gene-editing. I also learned about Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, which I hadn’t heard of before. It connects with our unit because it is about health in humans, and the science behind gene-editing.

I think even the idea of gene-editing is a huge step in the right direction for science and cures. It is a game-changer for everybody who has or is researching Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, other diseases that could possibly be treated by this technique. Though there is still a lot of work that has to be done, this is definitely good news.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/01/science/gene-therapy-muscular-dystrophy.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=7&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0