How Science has Allowed Humans to Modify Themselves

Author: Alexandra Tejeda

If I told you that it’s possible to change your genes would you do it? This is now a new possibility that you can have; need a new organ no problem let’s just take out some of your cells and voila a new fully functionally heart is created.

To first be able to understand how it’s even possible to create a new heart from our cells, you have to understand the magic of stem cells. Stem cells have the ability to develop into basically anything, skin, brain, muscles, blood you name it a stem cell can probably turn into it. Think that all stem cells have an instruction book with them, flip a page and it says “How to become a Liver” or “How to become a Finger.” All of us are made out of stem cells, when humans are still developing the womb we are all just cells, stem cells, to be in-fact. Even after we fully develop we still have stem cells within us. We all have adult stem cells in our bone marrow which can be extracted and used for whatever purpose we need. This is what makes stem cells so valuable in science and in the healthcare industry, since our bodies contain them we can use them. Adult stem cells actually helped create new types of treatments for patients, creating hope for something that was told was incurable.

A way stem cells can be used in treatments is if we use adult stem cells with gene editing and combine them it turns into stem cell based gene therapy! Stem cell based gene therapy is combining the way that stem cells can develop into different parts of our body and with the help of gene editing tools, tweaking and changing them. Stem cell based gene therapy is usually used when scientists and doctors want to target specific genetic disorders or genetic glitches, like thalassemia, sickle cell anemia, osteogenesis imperfecta, Marfan’s syndrome, and muscular dystrophy. 

As helpful as this all is, some people wonder should we even be able to do this, should humans be able to change and add whatever we want? This is a recent topic of discussion in the scientific community. An example of this could be with the scandal of crispr babies. In 2018 the world was shocked with the news that the first genetically modified babies were born in China. How did this even happen you might ask, how did the world not know that people were gene editing humans? It’s because everyone thought that no one was crazy even to actually do it, it was sort-of an unspoken rule, in the scientific community, don’t do gene editing on humans. Using CRISPR-Cas9, a technology that allows editing parts of the genome by changing, removing, or adding to certain sections in the DNA sequence, scientists in China were able to genetically edit the gene CCR5 or the gene for HIV in embryos to make them immune to HIV. Even though to us we might think,”Wow these babies are immune to HIV due to gene editing, this must mean that it’s something great,” the work done by the Chinese scientists was greatly commended by the scientific community. There is a lot that nobody knows about gene editing, we don’t know about unknown consequences that could happen, making it possibly maligin towards the heath in the future. It plays between the idea of medical advancements and the boundaries that we as humans have in ethical responsibility. 

There are bans and laws around the world in many different countries which forbid or have regulations to stop genome-editing. As a powerful but dangerous tool, in order to be safe, genome-editing is largely commended around the world. Remember the researchers who created the first genetically modified babies? The main researcher in China who genetically modified the embryos was sentenced to 3 years of imprisonment with a fine of 3 million Yuan which is roughly around more than $ 400,000 USD dollars. His coworkers were also sentenced and fined. One was sentenced for 1 year of imprisonment with a fine of roughly around $134,000 USD dollars, and the other coworker for 1 year and 6 months with a fine of roughly $70,000 USD dollars. 

The imprisonment and fines are a reminder that even though something may seem good, you should watch out, it might just turn into your worst nightmare.

References:

• What is Gene Therapy? | FDA

• What Are Stem Cells?

• Harvard researchers share views on future, ethics of gene editing

• Stem Cell Gene Therapy – an overview | ScienceDirect Topics

• How human gene editing is moving on after CRISPR baby scandal | CNN

• What is CRISPR-Cas9? – YourGenome

• The CRISPR-baby scandal: what’s next for human gene-editing

• The First Chinese Edited Babies: A Leap of Faith in Science – PMC

• Gene Editing |

• Autologous Stem-Cell-Based Gene Therapy for Inherited Disorders: State of the Art and Perspectives – PMC

• Stem-cell and genetic therapies make a healthy marriage

• Stem cells and genetic disease – PMC

• Stem cells: What they are and what they do – Mayo Clinic

• CRISPR Babies: Where Are the First Gene-Edited Children Now?

• Legal reflections on the case of genome-edited babies | Global Health Research and Policy