SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
CRISPR 'gone wild' has made stocks swoon, but studies show how to limit off-target editing
The fear that CRISPR-based genome repair for preventing or treating genetic diseases will be derailed by "editing gone wild" has begun to abate, scientists who are developing the technique say. Although there are still concerns that CRISPR might run amok inside patients and cause dangerous DNA changes, recent advances suggest that the risk is not as high as earlier research suggested and that clever molecular engineering can minimize it.
"Progress is being made at a pretty stunning rate," said biochemist David Liu, of Harvard University and the Broad Institute, who has developed several versions of CRISPR. A parade of new discoveries, he said, "suggests that it's possible to use these genome-editing tools and not make unintended edits."
Upgrade makes genome editor CRISPR more muscular, precise
Many groups are trying to do better, and now, a team led by chemist David Liu at Harvard University has engineered a version of CRISPR that potentially is both more dexterous and more precise.
[...] The new work, reported online in the 28 February issue of Nature, modifies the Cas9 enzyme, creating at least four times as many potential docking sites. In theory, this could allow researchers to, say, cripple or replace many parts of genes associated with human disease that CRISPR currently cannot touch.
Evolved Cas9 variants with broad PAM compatibility and high DNA specificity (DOI: 10.1038/nature26155) (DX)
Preprints:
- NmeCas9 is an intrinsically high-fidelity genome editing platform (open, DOI: 10.1101/172650) (DX)
- No unexpected CRISPR-Cas9 off-target activity revealed by trio sequencing of gene-edited mice (open, DOI: 10.1101/263129) (DX)
- In vivo CRISPR-Cas gene editing with no detectable genome-wide off-target mutations (open, DOI: 10.1101/272724) (DX)
- High-precision CRISPR-Cas9 base editors with minimized bystander and off-target mutations (open, DOI: 10.1101/273938) (DX)
(Score: 2) by Justin Case on Monday March 12 2018, @02:08PM (1 child)
We are well acquainted with phones you merely rent, videos you don't own, tractors you can't modify... soon it will come to this: do you own your DNA code or will you have to get permission to edit it?
Sure, the CRISPR technique may be the intellectual property of those who have developed it, but imagine a day when you have the tools to modify your DNA. Will you be allowed to make yourself much stronger or smarter? Apply "personal software updates" that haven't approved yet by your masters? Adjust your pleasure sensors, or modify the production of adrenaline to make yourself a more aggressive combatant?
Or will "they" decide what software updates you need, and require them all to be applied every Patch Tuesday, without even telling you what they're changing?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 13 2018, @01:00AM
If you don't have an NDA with your medical provider, you are already screwed.
They can do whatever they want, whenever they want with ANY samples taken from your body. Keep that in mind the next time the FBI DOESN'T need a DNA sample from you... because they already have it on record because of your regular visits to the doctor.
For anyone who doubts this, around the turn of the millenium there was a row about this in Texas I believe, where they were taking DNA samples from the children without the parents permission and using them to create a genetic database of all new children born at multiple hospitals there.
If they were doing that 20 years ago, what aren't they telling you they are doing now?