On "Human Nature", CRISPR, Cancer, Reshaping the Biosphere and more
Last week, “Human Nature: The Story of CRISPR - The Most Important Scientific Discovery of the 21st Century”, a documentary about gene editing, was screened at University of California – San Francisco, followed by a panel discussion. Views on the topic include:
From the film's production team
“CRISPR has given us unprecedented control over the basic building blocks of life. It opens the door to curing diseases, reshaping the biosphere, and designing our own children.
"Human Nature" is a provocative exploration of CRISPR’s far-reaching implications, through the eyes of the scientists who discovered it, the families it’s affecting, and the bioengineers who are testing its limits. How will this new power change our relationship with nature?”
Jennifer Doudna, co-discoverer of CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing, UC – Berkeley
“One of the big challenges with gene editing is to think about how we take a very powerful technology that has a lot of potential and make it more widely available … I don’t want it to be something that is only available to a few. That’s a big push, a big challenge … But also we need to be thinking about these broader implications of a powerful technology and how to develop them responsibly.
“I think they [large pharmaceutical companies] see the writing on the wall … We’re going to have to rethink how we even define a drug.”
Rodolphe Barrangou, CRISPR research pioneer who identified the bacteria in yogurt in 2007
"CRISPR is one of those rare technologies that is transcending and altering research and development and genesis of next-generation products in medicine, in agriculture and in biotechnology,
"if you’ve had one wedge of cheese, one nacho, one slice of pizza, one cheeseburger, one bite of yogurt, anywhere from China to Argentina, you’ve consumed a CRISPR-enhanced dairy product"
Separately, CRISPR gene-edited cells were successfully injected into three people with advanced cancer without any serious side effects (based on research from the University of Pennsylvania). Edward Stadtmauer, an oncologist and member of the research team said:
“Before we did this, no one had ever infused Crispr-edited cells into patients …
"Now we can move on to a whole new frontier of further engineering ...
"The possibilities are limitless based on our imagination and scientific focus.”
Note: The project successfully obtained FDA approval for using a CRISPR based process in humans and incorporating it into a medical therapy. More work is needed to eradicate cancer.
Other Notes
What is CRISPR? It is an immune system in bacteria. The acronym stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats
What is Cas9? It is an enzyme based process used to "edit" a DNA sequence. There are other ways to edit the genome as well.
OUR TAKE
CRISPR-Cas9 and other advances in gene-editing will have an increasing role in patient care. These capabilities will also impact all life sciences (agriculture, farming, etc.), drive significant innovation and require consideration of changing social, legal and ethical dynamics.
With these advances 1) medical/health care ecosystems will become more technical and data driven, 2) the role of the legacy pharmaceutical companies will change and 3) over time product/service costs may decline in a manner similar to the PC/smartphone industries.
Regarding "Human Nature", the documentary is excellent - and it can help inform and engage viewers with non-scientific backgrounds. In the U.S. there will be limited run screening during March in New York, NY (The Village East Cinema) and Berkeley, CA (Landmark's Shattuck Cinemas). It will likely be available on a streaming service as well.