Det är svårt att riktigt inse att det bara var för 63 år sen som James Watson och Francis Crick upptäckte DNA:s struktur och vi förstod hur människan fungerade.

Under tiden sen dess har bioteknologin fortsatt att utvecklas i rasande fart tills man idag, tack vare en teknologi som kallas CRISP-Cas9 kan redigera DNA-sekvenser för att avlägsna DNA som vi vet leder till genetiska sjukdomar, som Sickle cell anemia, bröstcancer, cystic fibrosis, HIV och
Huntington’s Disease

Den här metoden upptäcktes av år 2009 av Emmanuelle Charpentier och hennes forskargrupp vid Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden (MIMS) vid Umeå universitet och används nu över hela världen för att redigera DNA och avlägsna sjukdomsframkallade DNA-sekvenser.

Alice Park skriver i Time Magazine: How the Science of CRISPR Can Change Your Genes

One of the most exciting breakthroughs in science is here. CRISPR is a new technology that can edit DNA with remarkable precision, and it has the potential to change human lives forever.

With the ability to easily tweak DNA, scientists could theoretically remove genetic mutations that are responsible for incurable diseases, such as cystic fibrosis, HIV, and even certain cancers. Researchers are now beginning to test those possibilities on human cells in the lab. But CRISPR is already being used on crops, insects and more.
…
An advisory panel at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has approved a proposal to use the gene-editing technology CRISPR on human cells. It’s the first trial involving humans to be approved in the U.S.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania want to use CRISPR on immune system cells from approximately 18 people with cancer to ultimately help improve treatment. The first trial will test whether CRISPR is safe to use in people. The plan is for researchers to remove immune cells from people with melanoma, sarcoma or myeloma and edit them with CRISPR; the cells will then be put back into the men and women to see how they react.

The trial—which still needs to get approval from the medical organizations that will conduct it—will be funded by a cancer organization founded by former Facebook president Sean Parker. According to the medical news site STAT, the trial is planned to take place at the University of Pennsylvania, MD Anderson Cancer Center and the University of California, San Francisco.

En värld utan genetiska sjukdomar är en rätt fantastisk tanke. Det skulle i princip också vara möjligt att skapa supermänniskor med allt från hög intelligens till superb fysik, eller helt nya livsformer. En inte helt okontroversiell teknologi.

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