- This is what the future of genetic engineering
looks like. With advanced
DNA editing techniques, vaccines for deadly infectious
diseases with no side effects are developed
in a matter of weeks. Genes from any plant or animal
can be combined to create new hybrid organisms
resilient to climate change. This technique can even
restore extinct species. Doctors can detect every known
genetic disorder early on and repair mutations quickly, giving children
happy and healthy lives. - Our environmental
clock
is ticking. Today, scientists are blazing
a trail to this very future. - Tinkering with genes is actually an ethical thing
to do. - I want to know what
breakthroughs are being made. - Technologies like CRISPR
are incredibly powerful. - What we're doing here
is really the beginning
of a true revolution. - That will forge
the future to... That is incredible. The rise of
genetic engineering. [dramatic music] ♪ ♪ My name is Kondwani Phiri.
I'm a genetic researcher. You can say it's in my blood
. From an early age of
about eight or nine or so, I had just a natural curiosity
for the natural world. Cancer runs in my family. In fact, I lost my aunt
to breast cancer. And that piqued my interest
in genetics. I'm fascinated by
how the genes we inherit shape our biological destiny,
including our health. I believe the key
to treatment and cures for diseases like these lies in explicit efforts
to engineer human genes. But can we fix
not only what's broken, but also enhance
our genetic codes and
improve on Mother Nature? Someday, will humans direct their own evolution,
and should we? [inquisitive music] I'm starting my journey
in Washington D.C. to visit a family
who's grappling with the difficulties
caused by genetic disease. Hello!
Hi, Annabel. - Can you shake hands, Annabel?
- Hi. Oh, my gosh.
How are you? Oh, I think she's shy.
[chuckles] Four-year-old Annabel Frost has a heart-wrenching
genetic disorder. Could you tell me
a little bit about Annabel? - When Annabel was born,
it was
such a wonderful moment. But we were in this happy fog
and didn't notice the nystagmus,
the eye movements. We didn't notice
the jerky muscle movements. We didn't notice any of that. But the doctors realized
that something was wrong. - They diagnosed Annabel with alternating hemiplegia
of childhood, or AHC. - Hi. - This extremely rare disorder causes debilitating spells
of paralysis, delayed development,
and life-threatening seizures. - She'd have days of paralysis where her whole
one side of he
r body, she'd drag it along
behind her as she crawled. - You know, once a day she will
have these choking episodes where I need to pick her up
and hit her on the back to make sure
that she can breathe. - Annabel's condition is a result of a problem
in her DNA. The twisting double helix
of DNA is made up of four different base pairs
or nucleotides. The unique sequence
of these base pairs are instructions for the body
to make proteins. The base pairs are like
musical notes in a score that tell a m
usician
how to play a song. When all
the different sections of the DNA are played, the result is
a biological symphony. [lively classical music] But like a musical note
played out of key that compromises
the entire performance, there is an error
in one of Annabel's genes. - [cries] - The mutation
in the ATP1A3 gene is disrupting her nerve cells, leading to
her severe condition. AHC is
fundamentally intertwined in her genetic code. There is no restorative
treatment or cure. - The medicines that t
hey have
are kind of more about masking symptoms in a very
unspecific, untargeted way. - And we wanted to try to
figure out if there was a way to address the cause
and not the symptoms. - Without targeted treatment,
Annabel could die any day. both: ♪ Happy birthday
dear Annabel ♪ - There's a timeline
on this for us. We've got a ticking clock in the back of our minds
all the time. - The Frosts are desperate
for any kind of help. From sickle cell anemia
to Huntington's disease, millions of people
suffer from thousands of genetic disorders
much like Annabel's. Unless scientists can address
these genetic errors, children like Annabel will
suffer agonizing pain, and some will die young. I want to know,
can genetic engineering help families like this
in the future? Oh, my God.
- Oh, that's so nice. [dynamic music] - The double helix structure
of DNA was first revealed in 1953
by Rosalind Franklin, Francis Crick,
and James Watson. And within a few decades,
scientists discovered how to alter t
he DNA
of living organisms. But gene editing
really took off around 2013 when scientists harnessed
a molecular mechanism found in certain bacteria. This remarkable mechanism
is called CRISPR-Cas9, or CRISPR for short. CRISPR-Cas9 contains an enzyme
that serves as the bacteria's defense mechanism
against viruses. When viruses
infect the bacteria, the CRISPR machinery targets
a specific section of DNA. Then the enzyme responds
like a pair of scissors and literally cuts the virus'
genetic code apar
t. Scientists are now harnessing
this natural mechanism to target and precisely edit
the DNA of numerous organisms. To find out how, I'm heading to a biotech lab
in Brooklyn, New York. I'm on my way to Genspace, which is the world's first
community biology lab. Beth Tuck is the Director of
Science Education at Genspace. - We are an open-access science
lab or a community biology lab. - So are you telling me
if I'm a computer programmer and I wanted to learn
more about biology, I could essentially
come down here and take a class and use your facility?
- That's it. - Beth is going to show me
how to use CRISPR in the lab to edit a bacteria's genes
in new and novel ways. I brought this kit. Could you explain a little bit
how this kit works? - Yeah, sure.
Got a pipette. This is our measuring device. Got a rack where we'll put
some of our plastic tubes, some plates, petri dishes,
and then our E. coli. - E. coli is
a type of bacteria that lives in the intestines
of humans and animals. Though s
ome strains can be
deadly, most are harmless. Gloved up.
Let's do this. - All right, so we've got
our E. coli here. These are called DH5-Alpha,
which is a type of species that isn't harmful to people
with normal immune systems. - That's good to know. - So our first thing
that we need to do is actually get these bacteria
out of this jar. And so you just kind of
scoop it in there--yup. swirl it around,
bring a little bit up. The way that
this experiment works is we're gonna spend a day
to prepare
the bacteria. - Next, we insert
a CRISPR construct that will alter their DNA. - So we're going to add in
the CRISPR machinery and then change the cells.
- Ah. The CRISPR machinery
targets and edits a specific gene
in the E. coli, so that it can adapt to
a lethal dose of antibiotics. Normally, bacteria can't grow in the presence
of this antibiotic. The drug kills the bacteria. - We need to get
these bacteria onto this plate so they can grow. You're just gonna
gently drag it across the surface
of
the plate. - That's it?
- Yeah, that's it. - Over the course of
several days, Beth grows
the gene-edited bacteria in a petri dish laced with the E. coli-killing
antibiotic, but despite
this toxic onslaught, the genetically altered
E. coli continued to grow. I see plenty of growth. - The whole point of this
is to show that changing an organism's DNA
can change its features, and that you can do it
with CRISPR in a really precise way, in a way that wasn't
feasible before. - What kind of
positive ou
tcomes can we expect
from using CRISPR? - You can use it to design new on-the-spot testing
for infectious diseases. You can use it to cut out
HIV from human cells. There are so many more uses that we haven't
even imagined yet. That, to me, is why
this stuff is so exciting. - Harnessing the natural
ability of CRISPR and transforming it
into a technological tool has the potential to address
all sorts of problems. - In the future, advanced
gene editing techniques are reworking microbes
to create he
althier lives. Bacteria are engineered into
many pharmaceutical factories. These microorganisms
generate an inexpensive, abundant supply of medicines for diseases like malaria,
rabies, and coronavirus. And specially modified yeast converts organic waste
into green bio fuels. This innovative energy source
is not only renewable, but it also packs
more of a punch than regular fossil fuels. [light dramatic music] - Formulated by Charles
Darwin, natural selection is the driving force
of evolution. Wh
ile many individuals perish,
the species best adapted to their environment
survive and reproduce, passing along their
advantageous genetic traits to their offspring. These traits like height,
eye color, strength, and even personality
are contained in genes. Over generations, the process
of natural selection perpetually fine tunes the
species at the genetic level, helping individuals
to continually adapt to changes
in their environment. Humans learned to direct
this evolutionary process through a
rtificial selection. Through the intentional
selection of mates, humans facilitated
the breeding of animal offspring
with desired characteristics. Arguably,
the first known example of artificial selection
happened more than 15,000 years ago when humans
domesticated the wolf, breeding what we now
know today as the dog. ♪ ♪ In agriculture, artificial
selection has improved and even created
new fruits and vegetables. Through selective breeding
for certain traits, the simple wild mustard plant
was t
ransformed into cauliflower, cabbage,
and even broccoli. But even artificial selection takes at least
a few generations to work. Capitalizing on
the natural CRISPR process, gene editing in the lab can compress evolution
down to a matter of months. Using CRISPR to
manually engineer DNA is the next step
in accelerated evolution. And with this remarkable tool, scientists can even improve
our food supply. This matters,
because over 10% of the world suffers from hunger
and malnourishment. I'm in Rale
igh,
North Carolina, where pioneering
food scientist Dr. Rodolphe Barrangou
is using gene editing to boost food production
and feed the planet. - We're going to be able to breed crops that are
more efficient, that are more resistant
to disease. The biggest impact CRISPR
may have short-term, maybe the next decade or so, will to be to revolutionize
the food supply chain. - In fact, Rodolphe had
a hand in the discovery of the natural CRISPR
mechanism in bacteria. And his use of CRISPR
as a technolo
gy in milk is leading to remarkable
innovations in dairy products. - So what we're looking
at here is milk that is in the process
of fermenting. - Okay, so this is in
the earlier stage of things? - Very early stage. So we add the bacteria to start
the fermentation process and then use the lactose to solidify milk
into cheese and yogurt. - In most dairy facilities,
regular bacteria and yeast kickstart
the fermentation process. But before starting,
Rodolphe added a twist. He used CRISPR technology
to enhance the bacteria used
in the fermentation of milk. - We used it to build
just instant bacteria to make cheese and yogurt,
to have better fermentations and better manufacturing
of dairy products. - By vaccinating the bacteria, his dairy cultures
almost always succeed, which improves the process
of making yogurt and cheese. Processes like these
also make them healthier. - CRISPR has been
a life changer. And it also has opened
tremendous avenues to provide a healthier
and more sustainable f
ood supply for humanity. - But the true revolutionary potential of CRISPR technology is just now starting
to be realized. - Other people caught on to
using these molecular machines to actually cut DNA
to do genome editing, not just in bacteria,
but in other organisms. By understanding what CRISPR
is and how it works, scientists were able to
develop technologies that enable us to
now change the world. [bright electronic music] - By 2050,
the world population is expected to soar
to 10 billion peop
le. Food production will need to
increase 70% to catch up. To feed our growing population with the same amount
of farm land, the mass production of
food must be hyper efficient. At NC State Plants
and Microbial Biology Lab, Rodolphe's colleague,
Mary Beth Dallas, is facing
this daunting prospect. - I manage this lab, and I
also do research on cassava. - Also known as
the yucca plant, cassava is
the primary food staple of nearly one billion people. - Cassava plant
is very close to my heart. - Thi
s root vegetable
is kind of like a potato, and is widely grown across
Africa and the Americas. - They can actually harvest
the tubers and make flour, and they can make
breads out of that. They can also eat the greens.
It's really a nice plant. - Yeah, and me being
a native Zambian-- that's where I was born. I grew up eating cassava as
well as cassava leaves, so... - You know all about it.
- I know all about it. It has a special place
in my heart as well too. But there's a problem. A malady calle
d
cassava mosaic disease is ravaging
this critical food source. In Africa alone,
it's destroyed cassava crops, leading to numerous famines. - You can see here
the devastation of the plants. It gets really thin leaves,
and a mosaic pattern occurs. When the leaves
get destroyed like this, they cannot
photosynthesize properly and the tubers
that are under the ground cannot get the right nutrients,
and they get all shriveled, and then you can't use
the tubers for the food. We want to combat
and try
to find a way to stop the devastation
of these crops. - To wage this war, Mary's lab must take
an experimental approach. [energetic music] Using what's called
a gene gun, CRISPR-altered DNA is injected
into the cassava plant. - We bombard the stems
with the CRISPR construct, and what happens is the leaves grow up.
- Ah. In principle, as the leaves and the tubers
grow from the stem, the plant will become
more resistant to the crippling
mosaic disease. When can we see
a possible usage in African c
ountries
that are afflicted? - We're still trying to hone in
that technique. So hopefully,
we'll get it soon. - Hopefully soon.
[laughter] Imagine--gene editing
could help end world hunger. - This is also applicable
beyond crops to things like trees. Forests may be the biggest
farms that we have. - But as
the human population grows, so do our agricultural needs. This leads to deforestation, which is one of the primary
causes of climate change, contributing to
the record high temperatures we see
today. To reverse this scary trend, one solution is to plant
more trees to absorb greenhouse gases
like carbon dioxide. Rodolphe is collaborating with
tree biologist Dr. Jack Wang to grow more trees, and fast. What do we have here? - So these are
transgenic trees. - Jack's lab has created over 10,000 types of
genetically modified trees. The goal is to optimize traits
for different industries, like timber or paper, to reduce their
environmental footprint. - We deliver CRISPR
into these cells. - O
nce CRISPR has
altered the tree DNA, the embryos then grow
enhanced roots and shoots. - so these have been
engineered precisely for a specific genetic change
using CRISPR. - This helps Jack
to select for specific traits more quickly
and efficiently than traditional
plant breeding. - So this little bit
of seedling is now a tiny little CRISPR-edited
forest tree species. - This is at the stage just before it goes
into the greenhouse? - That's right.
So it's now ready to be grown for
five to six mon
ths. - Fantastic.
So cool. Jack's next step is taking these seedlings
over to the greenhouse where they'll be fully grown
and studied. - Compared to
15, 20 years it takes to breed a tree
in a natural population, in the greenhouse setting,
we can analyze and produce new genetically improved trees in as little as
five to six months. - That is incredible.
Six months? Here they're quickly
growing poplar trees, which is the most
effective species at absorbing carbon dioxide
from the air. - Yeah, they
can capture a very large amount of carbon
from the atmosphere, and we have to start solving
the problem right here, right now. We cannot afford to wait
for another 20 or 30 years. - This technique
for breeding trees has given reforestation
efforts a major jump-start. Our environmental clock
is ticking, and if we want
to create a better, healthier environment
for future generations, it's something that
has to be done now. - What we're doing here is really the beginning
of a true revolution. The
next green revolution,
coming to a forest near you. - Yes. - I think it's going to
revolutionize our world and solve the grand challenges
that we have on the planet. - A new CRISPR-fueled
green revolution will forge a path
to a more bountiful world. [dramatic music] - In the future,
gene edited plants are addressing world hunger
and climate change. Enhanced food crops
grow in harsh conditions, even in water-parched deserts. Thanks to these
disease-resistant plants, famines across the world
are a
thing of the past. New fast-growing forests
collectively take in the excess carbon dioxide
from the atmosphere, cooling the climate
and restoring balance to the world's ecosystem. [inquisitive music] - As I see it,
gene editing is both a faster and more precise method
for artificial selection. While it works in
microbes and plants, how feasible is gene editing in more biologically complex
organisms like animals? I'm in Davis, California, to meet geneticist
Alison Van Eenennaam. She's a pioneer
in this field, and I'm getting
acquainted with her work. Oh, no. - Scientists tend to be
problem solvers, and want to try
and address problems using the best method they can, and my lab is trying to breed
better cattle. - There are about
1 billion cattle on earth. That's a lot of animals
to manage, but Alison is making
cattle farms safer by eliminating
one particular trait. - I see some horns up here.
- Okay. - Dairy cows have been
bred to be very optimal
for dairy production, and, as it happens
,
dairy cows grow horns. - And these horns
are a problem because they injure
other cattle and ranchers. - You can imagine if this was
a particularly aggressive bull, that he could
hurt his pen mates. - Instead of manually
sawing off these horns, Alison is breeding a dairy cow that doesn't grow them
in the first place. Working with a type of cattle
that has no horns, she had their hornless gene inserted into horned
dairy bull cells. These cells were cloned
to make the hornless animals. These horn
less cows
are descendants of a gene-edited
hornless bull. - These are
proof of concept animals. They are kind of a prototype of how you could use
genome editing. - This genetic technique
produces offspring with a desired trait
much more quickly than the decades of breeding
normally required in traditional
animal husbandry. - That's really what
editing does for us, is it enables us to bring in one useful characteristic
that we want-- in this case,
not growing horns-- and not alter
the rest of the
genetics. - This technique shows that
gene editing tools can be used to introduce desirable traits
from one animal into another. [light music] Outside of trying to
remove the horns, are there any other expressions that you would want to
get rid of or add? - So what else might we do? One of the targets that's
a really obvious one for plant and animal breeders
is disease resistance. And so globally it's estimated we lose about 20% of all
animal production to disease. - That's a large percent. Tha
t's hundreds of millions
of cattle needlessly lost every year. - To me, genetics is the best
approach to deal with disease, 'cause if they don't get sick,
they don't need to be treated with antibiotics.
They're more productive. Farmer's happy, cattle are
happy, consumers are happy. So it's kind of a triple win
for sustainability. - But there's an even more
fundamental trait that Alison is
trying to select for. - In the beef cattle industry,
we would actually prefer males. - That's because male b
eef
cattle produce quantitatively more meat per pound of feed
than females. So Alison is also using
gene editing to breed cattle who only produce
male offspring. To achieve this,
she inserts a special gene into cow embryos in the lab. This makes selecting
the male sex possible. This could save more animals
from being slaughtered, and techniques like these could be used to
insert disease resistance, potentially reducing
the need for antibiotics. In fact, a gene-edited embryo was implanted into th
is cow
just three months ago. - And there is Princess. - So in a few short moments, we're about to see
an ultrasound of a cow here. Veterinarian Bret McNabb is going to perform
an ultrasound on Princess to see if the gene-edited
embryo has taken hold. - We're just gonna make sure
that the pregnancy is still healthy and viable
from what we can tell. - So an ultrasound on a cow is not quite the same
as an ultrasound on... [laughter] - The principles are the same, but our approach
is a little bit d
ifferent. - Alison's checkup may depend
on the whims of this mama cow to get the ultrasound scanner
up her... well, you know. [quirky music] ♪ ♪ [cow lows] - [chuckles]
You're doing that next time. - You know, I'm learning quite
a bit just observing, so... - Oh, I see.
[laughter] - She's pregnant.
- That's good news. - It appears
the embryo implant has successfully taken hold. - So on ultrasound, you know,
we use sound waves, and so anything
that's more dense is gonna bounce the sound
wave back
to my probe. And then you can start to see
floating around in there are those bright white
structures. Those are all
parts of the calf. - Oh, yeah.
Okay. - Based on certain structures, we can sex the calf,
and it looks like a male. - For Alison's endeavor to
breed male-only beef cattle, this is a significant
milestone. While these techniques
are still experimental and haven't yet been
approved by the FDA, Alison believes that
consuming products from gene edited cattle poses
no threat to human he
alth. Artificially selecting
for the male sex could make cattle production more humane
and more efficient. - There are some
pretty compelling benefits that outweigh the risks. - Seeing the genetic
engineering of livestock up-close and personal
is absolutely mind-blowing. [bright music] - In the future, engineering
the genes of farm animals speeds up their evolution
as useful domestic species. A new variety of cow gene
edited to dramatically reduce the emission of the
climate-damaging gas methane
is vastly reducing
global warming. Organs from genetically
modified pigs are safely implanted
into humans without fear of rejection
from the immune system. No one dies from a lack
of an organ donor anymore. [energetic music] - Humans have selectively
bred plants and animals, refining their traits,
for thousands of years. We've even created hybrids by mating creatures
from two different species. For example, a donkey
and a horse make a mule. But in the lab,
mixing up genetics can result in anyth
ing
and, well, everything. Jellyfish DNA
spliced into a bunny results in
a fluorescent bunny. When spider DNA
is edited into goats, their milk can be spun
into spider silk. Hybrids like these are
often bioengineered for research purposes. But one scientist is using
CRISPR's crossbreeding ability to do something
truly ambitious. He's bringing back the genes
of extinct species. I'm in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, to meet Dr. George Church, a legend in
the field of genetics, one of the originators
of
gene engineering. He's been working in
Russian Siberia to find the remains of
woolly mammoths with the aim of
resurrecting their DNA to fight climate change. - There's unfortunately lots of
melting ice in Siberia. As there are millions of
mammoths that are frozen that are becoming exposed, we had access to six really
excellently frozen specimens. They had never thawed
in 40,000 years. - When you were
grabbing the samples from the woolly mammoth,
anatomically where... - We're dissecting
big chunk
s of mammoth legs with a drill bit, and we're kind of suited up because there's meat
flying all over the place. - Due to overhunting
and environmental changes, woolly mammoths
began going extinct around 10,000 years ago. But George is
extracting their DNA from the cold preserved
remains in Siberia and mapping their genome. - So we read the genome
into the computer and then we write it into
modern Asian elephant cells. - Modern Asian elephants
and woolly mammoths share common ancestry,
but are tw
o distinct species. George is using advanced
CRISPR techniques to resurrect multiple cold resistant genes
from the woolly mammoth that grow extra hair
and produce more fat. He then plans to integrate
these genetic traits into the eggs of
Asian elephants. - We can make dozens of edits
to the genome and then clone them
into baby elephants. - But why? It turns out
cold-resistant elephants could also help mitigate
global warming. In the frigid tundra
of Siberia, grass is more effective
at keeping th
e Arctic cold than the current
forced environment, which retains heat. - Those millions of
square kilometers are at risk of warming,
and the only herbivore that can knock down the trees
is the elephant. Oddly, the herbivores can
change it back to grasslands, which is more photosynthetic. - A sizable population of
cold-resistant elephants would help maintain
this region as grasslands through grazing. And a more
photosynthetic Arctic would absorb
more carbon dioxide. - So it's part of
what will ho
pefully be a big international effort
to convert the Arctic, at least partially,
back to the form that was more conducive
to fighting climate change. - Is it outside of the realm
of possibility to, say, bring back an extinct creature
like a woolly mammoth? - Once we get that good at it, we may switch
the cold-resistant elephants into fully genetically
identical mammoths. - Who knew resurrecting
woolly mammoth DNA could help restore icy
conditions across the Arctic? - In the future,
genes from mo
st creatures can be safely inserted
into other species to create
revolutionary hybrids. Engineered jellyfish
with genes from plastic-eating microbes
now clean up the oceans by organically breaking down
non-decomposing trash. Some scientists have
even extracted DNA from dinosaur remains
and are on the brink of resurrecting
these extinct species. The hope is by bringing a
single dinosaur back to life, new technologies
will be developed to help other species
on the brink of extinction. - Speaking w
ith
George Church firsthand is both humbling
and inspiring. As if resurrecting the DNA of the woolly mammoth
wasn't enough, he also helped start the $3
billion Human Genome Project. This landmark study identified
every base pair of DNA and mapped the entire
human genome. Its primary purpose
was to conquer disease. It was and remains
a really big deal. - We are here
to celebrate the completion of the first survey
of the entire human genome. - This roadmap of
the intricate genetic codes across the
human body empowers doctors to better
diagnose and treat disease. - We've worked really hard
on bringing down the costs of reading genomes,
which I think is a thing that most people
could benefit from. - Thanks to advances in
DNA sequencing technology, the cost of reading
entire genomes has plummeted. - All it would take is
a small tipping point event to shift it over so that
everybody's using this. And in the case
of genetics, that would be reading
everybody's genome and giving them informatio
n
that was actionable. - By actionable, he means
letting individuals know what kinds of diseases they're
genetically susceptible to. This empowers people
to be proactive in avoiding or managing
imminent diseases. - I think
we're on a trajectory where everybody in the world
are gonna get sequenced within a few years. - The Human Genome Project
continues to have a big impact in treating all kinds
of human diseases. [light dramatic music] To find out how,
I'm at the historic Cold Spring Harbor Labo
ratory
in Long Island, New York, to meet with
Dr. Bruce Stillman. - There has been a revolution coming from
the Human Genome Project and a lot of cancer research
is linked to that. We now have a very deep
understanding of that genetics and what that can do is
to link new therapeutics to individual patient's
genetics. - I have an interest
in oncology. - Mm-hmm. - I lost an aunt
to breast cancer, and I think that took me
down this journey towards finding a solution. - One of our scientists
used a
very interesting genetic technique of
genetic selection, and now we're gearing up
to use that information to improve cancer therapy. - Founded in 1890, this lab is home to
eight Nobel Prize winners. - So this was the first lab at Cold Spring Harbor,
and still used. This is a cancer laboratory, so still used
for cancer research. - Scientists here are using
gene editing techniques, including CRISPR, to develop
new ways to fight cancer. These advances are
leading to treatments, tailored to work wit
h an
individual's unique genetics. - So for instance,
if you have a mutation in a particular gene
that causes lung cancer, there is a therapeutic that is
targeted to that lung cancer. - But in the shadow
of its long history of using genetics
to improve human life, Cold Spring Harbor Labs do have an unfortunate
and dark past. - What happened in
the 1910s and the 1920s was that scientists
began to believe that a lot of traits were
inherited by individual genes, when in fact they weren't. - This le
d to an era of
what's called eugenics-- that is, the selective
breeding of humans. Cold Spring Harbor Labs
even opened a eugenics records office to
gather biological information on the American population. At the time,
people of certain traits that some believed
to be desirable were deemed fit to reproduce, while minorities and
those with disabilities were blocked from marrying
and were even sterilized. - That eugenics movement
got way off track from science. Scientists pushed back against
this
eugenics movement, and, by the 1930s, it was effectively shut down
in the United States. - Despite this skeleton
in the closet, it's important
to know our history so as not to repeat it. And from what I see at
Cold Spring Harbor Labs today, I think there's plenty of room
to be optimistic. When real science
is conducted, true progress can be made. And the best place to start
is with affected children. - We have worked on a disease
called spinal muscular atrophy, which is a mutation
that children
inherit. The child will eventually die. But the laboratory
developed a drug, which actually prevents
these children from dying and actually gives them
a fairly high quality of life. - All this makes me think of
young Annabel Frost and her debilitating
genetic disorder. And this kind of research
fills me with hope. In fact, genetic engineering
can even remedy genetic disorders
like sickle cell anemia. Caused by a mutation, this
disease deforms blood cells into hook-like shapes,
which can stick to
gether and cause life-threatening
blood clots. - CRISPR's now being
used to change genes in sickle cell anemia, where you then transplant
back into those patients cells in the blood system that will essentially reverse
the sickle cell disease. And so those types of trials
are occurring now with CRISPR. - Recently,
scientists gene edited a patient's own stem cells
that produce bone marrow. They then reinjected these altered cells
back into her body. Amazingly, this therapy
cured the patient's sic
kle cell disease
for the first time in history. - Technologies like CRISPR
are incredibly powerful and can change the world. They also have the potential for changing humanity
as itself. - But there are limitations. The CRISPR technology
is not perfect, and sometimes
it makes mistakes in the genetic reworking
that could be catastrophic. This means CRISPR's
implementation directly into humans
remains a risky prospect. But one visionary scientist
is aiming to give gene editing
techniques an even h
igher level
of precision. Dr. David Liu of the Broad
Institute of Harvard and MIT is working on tools and
techniques that may one day lead to the safe
gene editing of humans. He's developing a new gene editing tool
called prime editing. Can you tell me a little bit
about your work in that regard? - So the machines
that nature provides us, like CRISPR-Cas9, often don't do
what we want them to do. The results of breaking
that double helix most frequently
disrupts things to cause the deletion
or in
sertion of small numbers of DNA letters at the cut site. - Both CRISPR and prime
editing technologies work by cutting DNA. But in some sensitive
situations, CRISPR technology can be
too blunt of a tool. That's because it breaks both
strands of the double helix. In rare instances,
this can disrupt the gene in unintended ways. But prime editing is
more like a pair of tweezers. It breaks only one strand
of the double helix, allowing scientists to
very precisely change a single base pair. This is li
ke changing one note
in a musical score. - For most diseases
with a genetic component, it's believed that in order
to treat the disease, you need to precisely
change that mutated gene back to the normal
DNA sequence. - This ultra-precise technique
means David can replace an individual mutation
on a single step of DNA and not an entire section
of the ladder. - So you can make those kinds
of changes using prime editors, the kinds of changes that we
believe could directly correct genetic disease-ca
using
mutations. - In the lab, David has
successfully corrected mutations for
genetic diseases, including Tay-Sachs
and cystic fibrosis. And he thinks this prime
technology will soon be ready to help people with genetic
disorders, like Annabel. How far off would you say is
a potential human application? - We should have some
of the first drugs ready by perhaps as early as within
the next five or ten years. It's an incredibly
exciting time. If you had asked me
about five or ten years ago, I would
have said it still was in the realm
of science fiction. - Yeah, that's wonderful. This experimental technique
will become science fact, giving affected individuals
the prospect of a better life. But for now, reworking the genetic codes of
people remains controversial. In 2018,
a researcher stunned the world by using CRISPR
to gene edit HIV resistance into the embryos
of a pair of twins. Called germline editing,
this technique on humans was considered premature and was widely condemned
in the sc
ientific community. - The first gene editing
in humans was a profound
misuse of science with profound implications
in society in general. - The involved parties
were punished for disregarding
safety regulations. Fortunately or unfortunately,
the Pandora's box of genetic engineering
has been thrown wide-open. - In many ways, this is one
of the costs of doing science. The technology itself
is agnostic. It's neither good nor bad. The real question is,
"What do people do "with that technology and ho
w
careful and/or mindful are they to the potential unintended
consequences that we have?" - With the depth of control
over evolution that gene editing enables in breeding plants, animals,
and eventually humans, we are entering uncharted
waters as a species. It's difficult
to draw a hard line between where progress
should stop and where our morality
or our ethics should come in. Some might argue that some lines have to be crossed
to make progress. And there has been
much progress, especially in a
griculture. Today, more than 90%
of corn and soybeans are genetically modified,
or GMO. These crops require less
pesticide, land, and water. Scientists are also using
gene editing to develop crops that are more nutritious
and even drought-resistant. Though many in the public
remain skeptical, the vast majority of
scientists believe GMO foods are safe. - Tinkering with genes for
benefit and for good purpose is actually
an ethical thing to do. - And as for humans,
many believe the benefits of gene
editing
outweigh the risks. - There are 10,000
monogenic diseases affecting hundreds of millions of
children across the world. Precise medicine would help, and then we start
building on that. - In the right hands,
I think genetic engineering will usher in
a much better future for people and our planet. Some think it will even shift human evolution
into overdrive. - In 30 years,
we may be unrecognizable. I don't think that's
going to be our intention, but when you take
these big leaps and get co
mfortable with them,
people get addicted. - I'm hopeful that
gene editing technology will ultimately help people
like my aunt and Annabel and, for those reasons
and many more, I believe the rise of
genetic engineering can't come fast enough.
Comments
crispr is brilliant. i made a mouse that shoots lasers from its eyes when its angry
Very one sided commentary. The quantum complexity of the DNA must be respected. The non local effect on the molecule as a whole by cutting and splicing parts of it will have long term consequences that we cannot foresee. Personally, I find it a terrifying prospect
Genetic engineering is kinda the evolved form of eugenics. Life is a phenomenon we naturally will try and harness and when we alter life to fulfill "Human" needs and desires unfortunately has unforseen consequences .❤ Trial and error ❤
Hope you could have explained what crisper is rather than ur opinion on how useful it is. Good effort but plz stop overpromoting events 🎉
Awesome!
Sorry about your family member man I to lost my aunt to something similar colonel cancer….she passed away earlier this year
Is crispr hooked into ai yet?
I'm in SE Asia Malaysia I was put in rehab for stupid reasons unrelated to drugs, my leg was chained and some people got beaten to death. Please support innovation that could bring and make smarter people, many unfortunate people could benefits much more. Many unfortunate people wouldn't be in horrible position like myself if the world we live got higher living standards like EU/East Asian countries.
Old news, we have been creating "designer babies" for over a decade now.
If we could use crisper to grow foods in the deserts, that would go along way in diminishing food scarcity.
May I have five clones of myself please. I’ve wanted this for over fifty years. Getting closer.thanks.
How they glue dna back.
Why not introduce Bison to the Siberian tundra?
well, huh....thx much for another upload 🇨🇦 😁
Go till Saturn or close Pentagon? Is that the only question for genetic engineering that triggered the September attacks
Franken-gene - scary stuff.
"Use your powers for good instead of evil."
I like movie time
X men in real time. ...
Remember No jab No job. We must never forget WHO coerced and emotionally blackmailed the children for use as shields, to temporarily and marginally "protect" adults. Thou shall not use pregnant women as Granny shields. Risking the young to "save" the old is rotten to the core.