CRISPR for a better future

There is always some changes we want in ourselves be it appearance such as hairstyles, glass-looking skin, trying to evade aging, the desire to be born like Hulk or even to design his own baby!

Down to the genetic level, for the first time in human history, the ability to build and select these genetic traits is now within reach. No one has played this game before. You want to know more, let's explore the gene editing world together!

Mutations and selection have molded all lives on earth from ants to humans. Mutations happen more or less at random whereas selecting which traits need to be passed on are decided by genetics.

Humans are rewriting these rules in incredible ways putting us in charge of our evolution. Science can repair our body and make us invincible to enemies we cannot see such as pathogens. Human life expectancy has doubled due to more and more selection under our control. DNA is genetic material encoded on long chains of nucleotide. Natural mutations good or bad happen at random spots. In mid 20th Century, scientists used chemicals and radiations to speed up mutations but was not that effective.

Later in 1970's scientists exchanged entire chunks of DNA between species. They created microbes that manufacture insulin, plant resistant to viruses and even mice with human genes. They can control what was edited not just where on the genome, what they needed was a more precise tool to make a single change in 3 billion DNA bases.

In 2012, they discovered a gene editing technology called CRISPR which has the power to reshape humanity. Evolution could be in our hands by combining unnatural selection with non random mutations.

CRISPR consist of DNA loci containing short repetitions of base sequences which are separated by short "spacer DNA".It was invented by single-celled organisms, the bacteria, which are constantly under attack by viruses. CRISPR is a defense mechanism to fight viral infections, first observed in Escherichia coli by Osaka University researcher, Yoshizumi Ishimo in 1987.

Bacteria which survive infection saves viral DNA in part of its genome as Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR). Its a bacterial immune system's memory of past infection in which viral DNA is copied in form of RNA and loaded on a special protein called Cas 9. This protein is a nuclease which upon viral infecion, cuts up the viral DNA.

Scientists have found that Cas 9 could do this in any type of cells by reprogramming the target, CRISPR could cut any genetic sequence. We can edit genes by cut and paste option in word processor or "find and replace" commands in programming language.

• Genes can be switched on and off, viral infections like Ebola can be cut out, or reprogramming our immune system to hunt down cancer cells.

• Thousands of human diseases are caused by single mutations in genes and each can be reversed with CRISPR.
• Complex traits like weight, heart disease caused by many genes interacting with the environment and in ways we do not fully understand might be within reach. 

To repair every cell in a body, human genetic modification has to be performed at the earliest stages of embryonic development so that those changes will be passed on to future generations. If CRISPR used in embryos make People Better, we could also use it to make Better People?

If a parent want to have a blue-eyed baby, a change in the OCA-2 gene would do express such trait or a more muscular baby by editing the myostatin genes in muscles. 

Through CRISPR we can now:

• change the amount that a gene copies in a cell
• delete genes completely
• cut off genes causing diseases e.g cystic fibrosis, multiple sclerosis
• modifying human cells to resist becoming cancerous and many more

Curing diseases with CRISPR and making designer babies are not technically that different, but are miles apart on ethical basis. While the benefits of gene editing are massive but using them also comes with risks. 

The question is:

"Are we playing 'God' or manipulating nature by genetically modifying living things?"

From my point of view, there is nothing about a sort of playing "God" about this, since we are part of nature and we are constantly being manipulated by our natural environment. We are manipulating back for human welfare as far as the biodiversity and natural ecosystems are not harmed. This topic however remains controversial. Let me know what you think of it!