Gene editing techniques can be too dangerous to apply?

Release date: 2017-11-24

Akbari is designing a technology called gene-driven technology and trying to see it as a way to accelerate human progress, and scientists see it as a powerful alternative to malaria, dengue and Zika virus-like diseases. arms. The US Department of Defense sees it as a national security issue.

In order to work in the morning, Omar Akbari has to go through at least six sealed doors, including an airtight front hall. The University of California's entomologists study the world's deadliest creature: Aedes aegypti, which spreads disease through bites, killing millions of people every year. But this is not the cause of the threat to security. Akbari is not just studying mosquitoes, he is also reorganizing with a self-destructive switch. This is not accidentally entering our world.

Akbari is designing a technology called gene-driven technology, which is seen as a way to accelerate human progress. This technology allows genetic modification to penetrate humans only for generations, and scientists see it. Cheng Neng eventually defeated powerful weapons like malaria, dengue fever and Zika virus. The US Department of Defense sees it as a national security issue.

Last year, former US National Intelligence Director James Clapper included genetic editors as a threat posed by "weapons of mass destruction and nuclear proliferation." In July, the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency awarded seven groups of scientists $65 million in a four-year contract to study genetic editing techniques, including Akbari. The contract officially stipulates that the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is the world's largest government funder of gene-driven research. Much of this money will be spent on designing safer systems to develop tools that fight extreme genetics, either accidentally or maliciously into the environment.

This danger may be more real than the scientists first thought of. Four years ago, when Harvard biologist Kevin Esvelt first proposed the use of the newly discovered short palindromic repeat gene editing system to establish gene-driven ideas, he considered the issue of species extinction. Specifically, a gene with low reproductive capacity is injected into the body of a foreign animal to compete with them to prevent the extinction of endangered wildlife. Conservation biologists accepted and endorsed this idea; currently, they are considering gene-driven to save native birds in Hawaii, New Zealand and Faralonis. But at this time, Eswest proposed to slow down the research.

The idea was due to the mathematical model results published by Eswest and his colleagues on the bio-preprint server (bioRxiv preprint server) on Thursday. For example, how often a short palindrome repeat occurs and the possibility of protective variability occurs, and considering these things, their work shows gene-driven aggression and is very cruel. Only a few genetically engineered organisms can absolutely change the ecosystem. Eswest did not see this technology as a threat, but thought that we should pay attention to how it is applied, which requires a new sense of courage.

“The main risk of genetically driven technology is social,” he said. "Gene-driven closed-door research, unprovoked panic, or unauthorized publishing can undermine public trust in science and government management." He still believes that genetic drivers have the ability to save endangered species against public health threats. But the first thing researchers need to do is to invent a gene-driven safer form. This is where the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency funds are used. Until recently, genetic drivers have largely entered the theoretical level – more secure than before. But with the influx of new funds, scientists like Esther and Akbarry began to link these pieces together and test them in real life. This was originally done with small insects, and a gene editor was injected into its DNA when they were fertilized. On Tuesday, a paper was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This is the first time Akbari published a paper on Aedes aegypti, creating a mosquito encoded by the bacterial Cas9 enzyme.

Cas9 is one of the substances that achieve DNA cleavage in a short palindromic repeat gene editing system. Therefore, the Akbari team simply injects the other half, the Wizard RNA, into the embryo, allowing Cas9 to automatically perform a specialized cutting process. Once they remove the epidermal pigment gene, the mosquito turns from black to yellow. What about the wing development gene? Welcome to the world of bloodsuckers that can't fly. I wish you can crawl and suck human blood.

These changes are just to show it. But as we learn how to best destroy mosquito species, mosquitoes that inject Cas9 will be an important tool. Scientists believe they only explored 5% of the Aedes aegypti genome. This means that no one knows how most mosquito genes work. Now, they can easily detect those knockout genes by genetic analysis. Maybe they will find a gene that keeps mosquitoes in their mouths and keeps malaria. Or a gene that prohibits them from tasting human blood. Our goal is to destroy as much as possible the animals and the ecosystems on which they depend, but still eliminate the disease. If you want to despise God, you must be merciful.

In addition to proposing a new approach to studying the physiological functions of mosquitoes, these strains are an important part of efficient gene-driven. Often, this technique requires simultaneous expression of Cas9 and guide ribonucleic acid in the same location. But this will make the drive system aggressive and uncontrollable. One way to control them is to maintain the separation of the various parts of the genome. This is also what Akbari is studying: a broken gene driven by a small lethality.

His team has begun to breed Cas9 strains with mosquitoes encoding the guide RNA. “The only way to keep driving spread is to constantly inject Cas9 into the mosquito population,” Akbari said. "Cas9 inherits the Mendelain approach, and as the driver relies on the existence of Cas9, it will be subject to the limitations of the lab environment or the wild."

The other way is "Daisy Drive", which is what Esther's nematode research on wool. It works by installing a self-generating genetic fuel on the parasite. Split them into 3 or more parts and connect them with a daisy chain. Once you introduce it, the ideal changes will quickly dissipate, but will fail in a moment. This result is temporary and can only control genetic editing of a local species. In short, this is the idea. Other teams funded by the US Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency are working to establish a guarantee that systems like this should fail or worse, or be released like biological attacks.

The team at the Institute and Harvard Medical School is screening a set of chemical switches to block editing of genes like short palindromic repeats/Cas9 and nucleases. At the University of California at Berkeley, the Jennifer Doudna team hopes to find anti-short palindromic repeat proteins that block gene editing activities, which can help design resistant gene-driven. Although the military is involved in super-mosquites that are concerned about the weaponization of the public and the repetitive serialization of short essays, Eswest sees the support of the Ministry of Defense as the only way to safely drive gene-driven technology, at least for now.

The US Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects program directly prevents the release of gene-driven organisms, which requires participants to work under strict biosafety conditions - so Akbarri needs access to six sealed doors. Maybe one day he will have molecular tools, no need to consider security issues. But for now, they are still the safest thing between gene-driven and the outside world.

Source: billion euro network