Don't Fear the CRISPR - Comments

[jack476]

Like with any new technology, I think I feel a reasonable amount of apprehensiveness, most of which likely comes from the fact that I have absolutely no background in cell biology or genetics and can't speak to the limitations of this technology one way or another, but I also know that many other technological revolutions have come and gone and the world is a better place for it despite some people at the time being absolutely terrified of them.

I'm hopeful, to say the least.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Not a great source I know, but good to start the conversation

What Happens If Someone Uses This DIY Gene Hacking Kit to Make Mutant Bacteria?
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/wh...-diy-gene-hacking-kit-to-make-mutant-bacteria

 

[DrDu]

Greg, just a technical comment. When the graphics in this article is under the mouse it gets dim and a blue point with two arrows appears. Klicking on that arrow, the graphics gets larger. But as the background of the graphics is tansparent, it becomes barely visible.

 

[Ygggdrasil]

What Happens If Someone Uses This DIY Gene Hacking Kit to Make Mutant Bacteria?
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/wh...-diy-gene-hacking-kit-to-make-mutant-bacteria

You don't really need CRISPR to make precision edits to bacteria, and the technology to do this has been around since the late 80s (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recombineering). The Indiegogo page for the kit in question describes the types of experiments that might be performed in freshman biology courses. These are not dangerous experiments. Yes, in theory, someone could use CRISPR to engineer something potentially illegal (for example, yeast that allow you to brew illegal drugs), but doing so would take much more expertise than the general public would have.

Personally, I would be more worried about people being able to stockpile assault weapons and materials for pipe bombs at home.

 

[Ygggdrasil]

More news on from those trying to engineer Cas9 proteins with increased fidelity:
Kleinstiver et al. 2016 High-fidelity CRISPR–Cas9 nucleases with no detectable genome-wide off-target effects. Nature. Published online 06 Jan 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature16526[/URL]

[quote]CRISPR–Cas9 nucleases are widely used for genome editing but can induce unwanted off-target mutations. Existing strategies for reducing genome-wide off-target effects of the widely used [I]Streptococcus pyogenes[/I] Cas9 (SpCas9) are imperfect, possessing only partial or unproven efficacies and other limitations that constrain their use. Here we describe SpCas9-HF1, a high-fidelity variant harbouring alterations designed to reduce non-specific DNA contacts. SpCas9-HF1 retains on-target activities comparable to wild-type SpCas9 with >85% of single-guide RNAs (sgRNAs) tested in human cells. Notably, with sgRNAs targeted to standard non-repetitive sequences, SpCas9-HF1 rendered all or nearly all off-target events undetectable by genome-wide break capture and targeted sequencing methods. Even for atypical, repetitive target sites, the vast majority of off-target mutations induced by wild-type SpCas9 were not detected with SpCas9-HF1. With its exceptional precision, SpCas9-HF1 provides an alternative to wild-type SpCas9 for research and therapeutic applications. More broadly, our results suggest a general strategy for optimizing genome-wide specificities of other CRISPR-RNA-guided nucleases.[/quote]

News articles:
Enzyme tweak boosts precision of CRISPR genome edits [URL]http://www.nature.com/news/enzyme-tweak-boosts-precision-of-[URL='https://www.physicsforums.com/insights/dont-fear-crispr-new-gene-editing-technologies-wont-lead-designer-babies/']crispr[/URL]-genome-edits-1.19114[/URL]
Improved Version Of CRISPR Gene Editing Tool Eliminates Errors [URL]http://www.popsci.com/new-form-[URL='https://www.physicsforums.com/insights/dont-fear-crispr-new-gene-editing-technologies-wont-lead-designer-babies/']crispr[/URL]-is-more-precise[/URL]

The work seems complementary to the work published by the Zhang lab (mentioned in https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/dont-fear-the-https://www.physicsforums.com/insights/dont-fear-crispr-new-gene-editing-technologies-wont-lead-designer-babies/-comments.811056/page-2#post-5305836), so the different modifications can probably be combined to engineer an even more precise enzyme.

 

[mfb]

UK scientists are allowed to test CRISPR-Cas9 with human embryos.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-35459054
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/fdda5bf9f0314b748c7438c9659da83a/britain-approves-controversial-gene-editing-technique