3 ms·

What are the limits of gene editing?

by xwdv 5y ago

xf1cf 5y ago
A better question might be what are the ethical limits of gene editing. How long until we stumble over eugenics but with extra steps? It seems to me at least to be the natural conclusion of advanced gene editing. Law of unintended consequences and all that.
stuntkite 5y ago
I don’t think there are any aside from money, time, and experience. If you’d like to give yourself glowing purple eyes, huge muscles, and make it so you fart clouds of illegal street drugs you can but it’s much more difficult and messy than deleting ‘node_modules’, rebuilding, and doing a `git push —force` into prod at 5PM on a Friday before you take a long weekend.
wizzwizz4 5y ago
We're constrained by the subset of physics that can be implemented by proteins. Plus, the genetic code can't be too big, or it won't fit, but I doubt we'll ever hit that limit (provided we don't go the software route and build a giant tower of massive abstractions that gets copied everywhere).
- hoseja 5y ago
  Proteins and things built by proteins. Teeth aren't very protein-y.
  - xwdv 5y ago
    Why can’t we hardwire genes to continue growing teeth?
    - hoseja 5y ago
      Because we have specialized diverse teeth. Of course it's possible but that would be novel genetic programming which we just can't do.
amelius 5y ago
Before getting too excited, let's not forget the stories where gene therapy went horribly wrong. https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/the-death-of-jesse-gelsinger-20-years-later https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/the-death-of-je... > Doudna expressed similar concerns about CRISPR. > “I hope that we don’t get ahead of ourselves with this technology. As exciting as it is, I really would like to see . . . people take a very measured and responsible path forward, where there’s careful vetting along the way,” she said. “Of course, the challenge is that patients are waiting, so you don’t want to delay unduly. But you also want to be safe.”
- dclowd9901 5y ago
  > “We were all very much aware of what happened there and what a tragedy that was,” she said in a recent interview. “That made the whole field of gene therapy go away, mostly, for at least a decade. Damn this sucks to read. To think of how much progress we might have made in a promising field if we could just get over one person dying. Yes it's awful, and we shouldn't be flippant, but we're talking about work to help _humanity as a whole_. This isn't the same as saying "the means justify the ends." This is just saying, "Shit, we fucked up there, let's not do that again, but let's keep learning." I don't know how you ever advance without making mistakes.
  - nojokes 5y ago
    Well, in some situations we are doing this. For example even when some vaccines happen to kill some small number of people, it has been argued that in current situation it is still net positive.

What are the limits of gene editing?

by xwdv 5y ago

What are the limits of gene editing?

A better question might be what are the ethical limits of gene editing. How long until we stumble over eugenics but with extra steps? It seems to me at least to be the natural conclusion of advanced gene editing. Law of unintended consequences and all that.

stuntkite 5y ago

I don’t think there are any aside from money, time, and experience. If you’d like to give yourself glowing purple eyes, huge muscles, and make it so you fart clouds of illegal street drugs you can but it’s much more difficult and messy than deleting ‘node_modules’, rebuilding, and doing a `git push —force` into prod at 5PM on a Friday before you take a long weekend.

wizzwizz4 5y ago

We're constrained by the subset of physics that can be implemented by proteins. Plus, the genetic code can't be too big, or it won't fit, but I doubt we'll ever hit that limit (provided we don't go the software route and build a giant tower of massive abstractions that gets copied everywhere).

hoseja 5y ago
Proteins and things built by proteins. Teeth aren't very protein-y.
- xwdv 5y ago
  Why can’t we hardwire genes to continue growing teeth?
  - hoseja 5y ago
    Because we have specialized diverse teeth. Of course it's possible but that would be novel genetic programming which we just can't do.

amelius 5y ago

Before getting too excited, let's not forget the stories where gene therapy went horribly wrong. https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/the-death-of-jesse-gelsinger-20-years-later https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/the-death-of-je... > Doudna expressed similar concerns about CRISPR. > “I hope that we don’t get ahead of ourselves with this technology. As exciting as it is, I really would like to see . . . people take a very measured and responsible path forward, where there’s careful vetting along the way,” she said. “Of course, the challenge is that patients are waiting, so you don’t want to delay unduly. But you also want to be safe.”

dclowd9901 5y ago
> “We were all very much aware of what happened there and what a tragedy that was,” she said in a recent interview. “That made the whole field of gene therapy go away, mostly, for at least a decade. Damn this sucks to read. To think of how much progress we might have made in a promising field if we could just get over one person dying. Yes it's awful, and we shouldn't be flippant, but we're talking about work to help _humanity as a whole_. This isn't the same as saying "the means justify the ends." This is just saying, "Shit, we fucked up there, let's not do that again, but let's keep learning." I don't know how you ever advance without making mistakes.
- nojokes 5y ago
  Well, in some situations we are doing this. For example even when some vaccines happen to kill some small number of people, it has been argued that in current situation it is still net positive.