3 ms·
> It's not an injection you take that goes out and edits every cell and you magically change shape I don't think that's what they were referring to. It seems t
by craftyguy 9y ago
> It's not an injection you take that goes out and edits every cell and you magically change shape
I don't think that's what they were referring to. It seems that the concern is you make an edit, it is unsuccessful in implementing whatever you wanted but also breaks something critical (e.g. proper skull formation), and that gene is passed to your children who then suffer the consequences. That seems feasible to me, but I'm not a bio expert, don't play one on TV, and haven't stayed in a Holiday Inn in years.
- ben_w 9y agoYour suggestion is much more plausible than mine, especially as it won’t be noticed for at least 9 months after the modification. I was mainly inventing a nicely dramatic failure mode that seemed plausible on the assumption humans are just a bunch of self-replicating chemicals, so you could inject genes that say “send self-destruction signals to nearby cells that have not been modified like me, then grow into the gap they leave in [shape of new structure]”, much like the sexually transmitted genital cancer dogs can get that was in the news a while ago.
- jopsen 9y agoI guess you can backup your genes by putting seed/eggs on ice :)
- colechristensen 9y agoGene therapies are targeted to specific tissues/organs. The only way you pass on the genes is by using CRISPR/CAS9 to modify an embryo or gamete in IVF.