Week 5 Biology

Choice 1: Editing Human Embryos and Adults

With respect to gene editing in human embryos, most research is focused on fixing or removing harmful mutations that may cause diseases, but there are some fears of creating designer babies. In addition, we can edit the genes in adults, if we use a targeted approach. Read the articles below, and then respond to the prompt.

Questions to consider:

What is your take on the research? Are there any benefits and/or costs? Should we be focusing on this? Is there reason for concern?

Articles for Editing Human Embryos and Adults

• Darnovsky, M., & Hasson, K. (2020). CRISPR’s Twisted Tales: Clarifying Misconceptions about Heritable Genome Editing. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 63(1), 155-176. doi:10.1353/pbm.2020.0012.
• A human has been injected with gene-editing tools to cure his disabling disease. Here’s what you need to know. (Kaiser, 2017) http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/11/human-has-been-injected-gene-editing-tools-cure-his-disabling-disease-here-s-what-you
• CRISPR fixes disease gene in viable human embryos (Ledford, 2017) https://www.nature.com/news/crispr-fixes-disease-gene-in-viable-human-embryos-1.22382
• The first CRISPR edited babies are (probably) here. Now What? From: Science Friday https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/the-first-crispr-edited-babies-are-probably-here-now-what/