Gene Drives: The Future of Genetic Engineering and Its Ethical Dilemmas

Imagine we could stop mosquitoes from carrying malaria ... for good. Or prevent ticks from transmitting Lyme disease. Or eliminate the billions of dollars of damage caused by bugs to our food supply each year. Gene drives are a radical

new approach to genetic engineering that could help us achieve these goals, and a whole lot more besides. Yet as you might expect, the technology is not risk free. Gene drives are designed to eliminate unwanted traits in insects and other

animals. They work by pushing out genetic modifications through whole species, until eventually, every critter has been changed into something we have intentionally engineered.

The idea isn't especially new. But it's only very recently that advanced gene editing techniques have made human designed gene drives possible. And at the heart of this revolution is a new technique for precision engineering genes: Clustered Regularly

Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats... or if you're not into brain bending tongue twisters, CRISPR for short. CRISPR uses specially designed molecules that run along the strands of DNA in an organism's genome, and seek out specific sequences of

genetic code. Once found, they snip out the old code, and paste in the new. It's essentially a sophisticated biological search and replace technology that allows scientists to easily modify the genetic traits of an organism, such as replacing

the parts where a mosquito's genome that allows it to host malaria-causing parasites for instance. Unfortunately, on its own, CRISPR isn't so effective. Every time a CRISPR mosquito mates

with a wild one, its genetically modified DNA is diluted down, meaning that some of its offspring will still be able to carry the malaria parasite. And this is where the genius of crisper-enabled

gene drives comes in. Imagine what would happen if that replaced sequence in the CRISPR mosquito, also contained a little bit of code that continued to search and replace parasite-enabling DNA sequences. When the mosquito mated, the built-in code would ensure

that every single one of its progeny would inherit the same traits, as well as inheriting the CRISPR code that would ensure the anti-malaria gene was passed on to every future generation. In other words, the new gene will be irresistibly

driven through the whole mosquito population. And eventually, every mosquito will become a human-designed malaria-free insect. And this is not a technology that's restricted to mosquitoes. Any organism that reproduces by sharing DNA

through sexual intercourse is fair game. That said, designing an effective and responsible gene drive isn't a piece of cake. Working out which genes to change in an organism for instance, is still in an inexact science. Especially when the CRISPR search

and replace may modify more genetic sequences than expected, or introduced anticipated traits. The speed with which new genes can be driven through spaces also depends on how frequently they reproduce. Gene drives

are in principle great for transforming fast-breeding organisms like insects. Yet it would take millennia to push a gene drive through a relatively slow breeding species like ... humans, for instance. And that's assuming that naturally occurring genetic

mutations don't mess up the re-coding in the meantime. Nevertheless, gene drives do radically change how we're able to manipulate nature. And that also

means they raised tough questions around risk and responsibility. For instance, we don't yet know how gene drives might harmfully disrupt ecosystems, or create unexpected risks to other species humans include it and we're not sure how much hard wiring in

certain genetic traits will weaken an organism's ability to adapt to changing environments especially when those traits would normally be rejected through natural selection and then there's the danger of entrepreneur's and

hobbyists even with nature just because they can or people who intentionally set out to create even more dangerous pieces weaponized super mosquitoes possibly hunger games like speeches designed to maim and kill not to mention the

possibility of groups starting exclusive human gene drives that will give their future is genetically enhanced abilities because of concerns like these scientists have already started to think about how gene drives might get out of

hand recommendations are beginning to emerge from responsible practices like testing grounds in the lab before trying them out in the environment and there's talk

of countermeasures such as the one gene drives that can remember changes of Pollock the propagation of genetic modifications get these discussions often assume that it's the scientists and the developers who know what's best

I suspect though that when it comes to intentionally redesigning natural speeches there are a lot more people who'd like a say in what should and should not but

especially as the risks and benefits of June drives are likely to affect far more people than those who came up with the private idea in the first place which leaves the question if the use of Green drives or a social issue as much

as a scientific one how can ordinary people become involved in ensuring we get it right or it's too late if you have any thoughts on this please do share them in the comments below and

as always stay safe