Expository Essay on CRISPR
One October night in China the world was forever changed when twin girls were born. These were no ordinary girls because they had been mutated by a rogue scientist to resist a pandemic that had ravaged the world 37 years earlier. That single experiment using a new technology called CRISPR sent out shockwaves that have been felt across the fields of biology, technology, history, healthcare, and even patent law. Genetic modification is a powerful tool that has far reaching impacts.
Genetic modification began thousands of years ago and according to Gabriel Rangel, “The dog is thought to be the first organism our ancestors artificially selected” making it older than farming. According to The Editors of Encyclopaedia “genetic engineering (is), the artificial manipulation, modification, and recombination of DNA or other nucleic acid molecules in order to modify an organism or population of organisms.” Genetic modification can be divided into two main categories: artificial selection and recombinant DNA technology. Modification performed in a lab usually involves recombinant DNA technology whereas, artificial selection is usually performed in the field. Artificial selection is much older and is usually much less precise because the genes introduced are random. In the lab scientists select the organism and trait to modify, and finally take a gene known to have the desired effect in another organism and insert it into the target organism using recombinant DNA technology, such as CRISPR.
CRISPR or Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats was discovered by Jennifer Doudna, and usually “(t)he CRISPR immune system works to protect bacteria from repeated viral attack” (Pak). In bacteria the only infection to fight off is invasion by viruses, which inject their DNA into the bacteria in order to replicate themselves until the bacteria explodes. To prevent being exploded the bacteria has a system in place to find the viral DNA and cut it, which renders it inert. “Now CRISPR is actually a natural system in bacteria that evolved to fight invaders like viruses-basically by chopping up their DNA” (Green) The bacteria then stores the inert DNA in its single chromosome to help identify the virus later. When we want to use CRISPR to make changes to DNA we program it to cut the DNA at a specific location and then provide the cell with a segment of new DNA to fill the gap, or we can make multiple cuts to remove portions of DNA from a strand. “The CRISPR-Cas system is incredibly effective. It’s also easy to manipulate, letting us alter a cell’s genetic code however we want” (Tabb). The ease of use, accuracy, and availability of CRISPR are part of the reason for holding the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing.
Also occurring during the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing "...Jiankui He of the Southern University of Science and Technology, [announced he] had used genome editing to make genetic alterations in early embryos..." (Olson) that resulted in the creation of the world's first genetically modified human beings. These humans, twin girls, were modified to have an altered form of the gene CCR5 that, in its altered form, increases resistance to the HIV virus. The unauthorized experiment conducted by Dr. He which, while in theory would be very beneficial to the girls, also carried with it serious risks. At the present there are other methods that can be used to prevent infection with the HIV virus, for example, PrEP can significantly reduce the chance of contracting HIV without the need for genetic modification. The simple modification of a person’s DNA carries with it not only the risk of damaging that person’s genome, but also serious legal concerns.
The mere fact that the DNA has been modified means that it can be patented so,as Chakrabarty argued in his court case for his oil consuming bacteria “...by altering the organism, it was his ingenuity that made the bacterium valuable”. (Specter) The holder of the patent can decide who can research, test for, modify, or possess the patented code or any fragment of that code. Because patent holders can decide who can test for, and research their code, they can control what diseases can be treated. If the CCR5 gene were to be patented that holder could potentially control the future of HIV treatment and prevention. While restrictions on the modification and possession of specific code have not been imposed on people at this time, restrictions have, however, been made on crops that have been modified.
The fact that companies can restrict who can plant their GM crops can pose a significant problem to farmers because, if the farmer is found to have kept some of the seed for next year the company can sue for patent infringement. Farmers can be prosecuted for just having the GM crop growing in their field, even if they didn’t plant it. This can be a big problem because, “In the United States, 93 percent of soybeans and 88 percent of corn is genetically altered...” (Winerip) and all it takes is for one seed to be blown or carried into another farmer’s field for them to be in violation of patent law. GMOs do not only affect the farmers that plant them they can also have an effect on the environment as well.
To be sure, GMOs can pose a serious threat to the environment because they can escape into the environment and release their genes into the environmental gene pool. They can also help the environment as well by significantly reducing the amount of pollutants in the environment. “In 2016 alone, growing GMO crops helped decrease CO2 emissions equivalent to taking 16.7 million cars off the road for an entire year” (Stebbins). This figure is only expected to increase as more GMOs are planted. While there hasn’t been a problem yet, “Cross-pollination has eliminated a large portion of heirloom varieties of corn and could contaminate wild plants as well” (Bell). could pose a problem. The simple fact that GMO plants can pollinate non-GMO plants can cause serious problems for farmers because of the patent laws surrounding them. If, for example, a farmer is found to have a specific GMO crop growing in his fields, then he could face legal consequences for theft of intellectual property even if he did not plant those crops himself, proving just how far the effects of genetic engineering can reach.
From those twins born on that October night in 2018 to combating climate change, genetic modification is a powerful tool that has far reaching impacts. CRISPR has allowed us to make more precise edits to an organism's genome cheaper and easier than ever before, challenged our understanding of property, and is redefining what it means to be human. Genetic engineering has and will continue to alter the course of human history and evolution.
