Has anyone heard of this new technology? I think it’s new. They erased HiV from the cells of of a human so far. Would you agree in editing future children’s Dna so that they don’t have disease? I agree with doing it for Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia if they found a gene that caused it but I don’t agree in making people taller and stuff
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Yes - its all the rage in genetics research right now. It makes it much more possible to edit genes in a targeted way - which can be very powerful. But, as you suggest it has to be used carefully.
Germline changes (i.e. changes in the egg/sperm that would be passed down through the generations) is not allowed on humans right now and if it does happen it will likely be at least a few decades out - a lot more research needs to be done, and likely only allowed in developed countries in serious and simple genetic disorders. Schiz is too complex (over 100 genes implicated, and who knows what else those genes do) - so not likely any time soon.
But - it might be helpful as a gene therapy for sz before then - e.g. to create new brain cells with lower dopamine production to put into the brain (if that is what research shows would help people with sz).
Anyway - a very interesting topic, but many years before much impact. Stay tuned.
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Holy hell! This is something I could never have imagined. Very cool idea, but with certain propensity to cause other, unwanted changes to the body. I’m not big on the idea of hacking genes. Sometimes you just shouldn’t mess with Nature.
Keep an eye on Feng Zhang of the Broad institute he is working on schizophrenia and is one of the founders of crisper cas9
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Looks good: