{"id":17870,"date":"2018-10-11T09:17:08","date_gmt":"2018-10-11T14:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=17870"},"modified":"2018-10-11T09:17:08","modified_gmt":"2018-10-11T14:17:08","slug":"this-would-do-as-a-scourge-from-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2018\/10\/11\/this-would-do-as-a-scourge-from-god\/","title":{"rendered":"This Would Do As A Scourge From God"},"content":{"rendered":"

A gene drive<\/em> is the insertion of a gene sequence onto a chromosome which automatically copies itself into the other chromosome of the pair, thus raising the odds of it appearing in the offspring of the organism which has had the gene drive inflicted on it. It’s a new bit of technology. So what<\/em>, you say? Well, this report<\/a> by Michael Le Page in NewScientist<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0(29 September 2018) made my blood run cold:<\/p>\n

MILLIONS of lives might be saved or transformed for the better by the first working gene drive. This piece of \u201cparasitic DNA\u201d could spread through mosquito populations, wiping them out by making them infertile and halting the spread of deadly malaria.<\/p>\n

In the lab, the gene drive killed off all mosquitoes within 12 generations. \u201cThere were no progeny,\u201d says Andrea Crisanti of Imperial College London, whose team\u2019s gene drive is based on the CRISPR gene-editing method.<\/p>\n

There are 200 million cases of malaria each year and half a million deaths. Those who survive may have lasting health issues, and can become trapped in a cycle of illness and poverty.<\/p>\n

\u201cGene editing holds the potential to save millions of lives and empower millions of people to lift themselves out of poverty,\u201d billionaire Bill Gates, whose charity is helping fund the work,\u00a0wrote earlier this year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Gene drives are pieces of parasitic DNA inserted into one of an organism\u2019s chromosomes. Chromosomes generally come in pairs, only one of which is passed from a parent to its offspring, so such a piece of DNA would usually pass to half an animal\u2019s progeny. But gene drives \u201ccopy and paste\u201d themselves onto both chromosomes when eggs and sperm form, meaning they get passed on to all offspring and spread through a population.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And scientists found a way to ensure that mutations won’t affect the gene drive. Basically, a gene sequence can be spread throughout a population just by inserting it using gene drive into a few individuals of reproductive age and inclination.<\/p>\n

The scientists are jubilant, but it strikes me that this could cause havoc in a human population if used with malicious aforethought. The dangers should be obvious.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A gene drive is the insertion of a gene sequence onto a chromosome which automatically copies itself into the other chromosome of the pair, thus raising the odds of it appearing in the offspring of the organism which has had the gene drive inflicted on it. It’s a new bit \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17870"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17872,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17870\/revisions\/17872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}