[ExI] CRISPR and Gene Drives

[BillK]

As a follow up to CRISPR children, scientists are now using gene
drives to drive a genetic change through entire species. What could
possibly go wrong?

<http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/11/05/451216596/powerful-gene-drive-can-quickly-change-an-entire-species>

Powerful 'Gene Drive' Can Quickly Change An Entire Species     November 05, 2015

The drive is a sequence of DNA that can cause a mutation to be
inherited by the offspring of an organism with nearly 100 percent
efficiency, regardless of whether it's beneficial for that organism's
survival.
By combining it with new genetic editing techniques, scientists are
able to drive changes they make quickly through an entire species.

The advance is raising excitement about possible real-world uses, such
as fighting diseases like malaria by changing mosquitoes that spread
malaria so that they can no longer carry the parasite. The technology
might also help with other insect-borne diseases such as West Nile,
dengue fever and Lyme disease.

"There are inherent problems with gene drives," says Brendan Parent, a
bioethicist at New York University. "We don't know what other impacts
we're having."

The engineered organisms could upset the delicate balance of an
ecosystem, inadvertently destroying other species, causing new
diseases to emerge or prompting existing illnesses to spread to new
places, Parent says.

"We don't know whether the elimination of malaria specifically won't
somehow have genetic effects that cause a super-virulent pathogen to
be released or to bring in much greater catastrophic consequences,"
Parent says.
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<http://www.statnews.com/2015/11/12/gene-drive-bioterror-risk/>

Why the FBI and Pentagon are afraid of this new genetic technology
November 12, 2015

A powerful new genetic technology could eliminate scourges such as
malaria and rid entire countries of destructive invasive species. But
officials from the FBI to the Pentagon to the United Nations
bioweapons office, STAT has learned, are concerned about the potential
of “gene drives” to alter evolution in ways scientists can’t imagine,
and even offer a devastating new tool to bioterrorists. Now they are
scrambling to get ahead of it.

The Pentagon’s shoot-for-the-moon research-funding arm, DARPA, though
enthusiastic about the potential benefits of gene drives, is studying
approaches that could halt them if they went out of control and
threatened ecological havoc.
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Gene drive probably won't directly affect the human species, as the
reproduction rate is too slow.
But for fast breeders.........


BillK