4 ms·
There are a small number of known advantageous mutations already present in a small number of humans that could be introduced to larger numbers via CRISPR, brou
by reasonattlm 10y ago
There are a small number of known advantageous mutations already present in a small number of humans that could be introduced to larger numbers via CRISPR, brought to the clinic as a somatic gene therapy for adults. This is an enormous market in comparison to "merely" curing all genetic disease, as near every adult human would be able to benefit.
Not much movement in getting that into the clinic yet, however, for reasons that are entirely cultural. The first company to get one of these working via medical tourism will make a lot of money. CRISPR makes that goal pretty easy in comparison to the past.
These changes include things like extra follistatin or knocking out myostatin to gain greater muscle growth and less fat tissue, or removing or disabling ANGPTL4 to reduce heart attack risk by 50%. There are others along the same lines and more are being discovered as sequencing becomes ever cheaper.
The comparative lack of effort to make enhancement gene therapies a reality is nothing short of crazy, given the observed benefits in the few humans lucky enough to already have these variants or loss of function mutations.