CRISPR technology has revolutionized the field of gene-editing with its ability to cut and paste bits of DNA but also carries big ethical questions and unknown risks.
Previously thought of as the work of science fiction it is now touted in headlines as one of the biggest scientific breakthroughs.
While still in the early stages of research, CRISPR鈥檚 future potential to cure genetic diseases and alter mankind has been the subject to many ethical and scientific debates.
鈥淸CRISPR] could revolutionize a lot of things in medicine and there鈥檚 a lot of promise, particularly with cancer,鈥� University of Toronto bioethicist Kerry Bowman told CTV鈥檚 Your Morning on Friday.
He explained the potential to use it to alter a person鈥檚 immune cells so that they would target cancer cells in the body and reprogram them.
鈥淏ut it鈥檚 going to take some time to get it from the lab to the bedside,鈥� he said.
CRISPR has also shown promise in mice for eradicating diseases such as HIV, as it鈥檚 able to literally remove the disease from the gene sequence.
鈥淏ut with this comes risk,鈥� Bowman warned. 鈥淚n a lot of the early trials, particularly the early trials done on human embryos, [鈥 there was a lot of what鈥檚 called off-target.鈥�
Off-target is when the intended gene-editing effect has unexpected consequences. For example, imagine your genes are a giant tangled mess of Christmas lights. Sometimes if you take out one faulty bulb it fixes the problem but other times the entire string goes out or half the string starts flashing.
The same thing can happen if CRISPR removes the gene for a disease. It might solve the problem but it could have a knock-on effect with another gene that controls a vital function.
鈥淕enes are very complicated and as we learn more about genes we realize that genes affect other genes. So it鈥檚 not completely clear what the potential side effects from some of the CRIPSR interventions could be,鈥� Bowman explained.
And it鈥檚 not just diseases that CRISPR can alter; it also has the potential to change human evolution.
While it鈥檚 still not possible to override natural selection, earlier this year, scientists in the U.K. and the U.S. were granted permission to alter human embryos, which could affect generations to come.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 affecting what is called the germ line,鈥� Bowman said, 鈥淲hat that means is if the child is born and you鈥檝e altered the child鈥檚 genes, if that child goes on to have children, those genetic changes will go on through the generations. It could take decades or maybe generations to find out what some of the negative effects would be.鈥�
According to Bowman, changing 鈥渢he human story鈥� also brings up big ethical questions and implications for our society.
鈥淲hat we鈥檙e doing is creating a new kind of person and a new class of person. Society already has enough prejudices,鈥� he said.
鈥淐RISPR has great potential but we can鈥檛 lose sight of the ethics and we鈥檒l have to move very cautiously with it and think it through.鈥�
