tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/gene-technology-3499/articlesGene technology – The Conversation2019-03-13T19:11:18Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1134632019-03-13T19:11:18Z2019-03-13T19:11:18ZExperts call for halt to CRISPR editing that allows gene changes to pass on to children<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263553/original/file-20190313-86713-uwtcri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">CRISPR is a gene editing tool that can create permanent changes in the human genome. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/newborn-baby-first-many-small-hospital-1103569475">from www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Remember the global outrage four months ago at world-first claims a researcher had used the gene editing tool CRISPR to <a href="https://theconversation.com/researcher-claims-crispr-edited-twins-are-born-how-will-science-respond-107693">edit the genomes of twin girls</a>? </p>
<p>The molecular scissors known as CRISPR (<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-crispr-gene-editing-and-how-does-it-work-84591">CRISPR/cas9</a> in full) allow scientists to modify DNA with high precision and greater ease than previous technologies.</p>
<p>Now researchers from the USA, Europe, China and New Zealand have published a prominent call for <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00726-5">a moratorium</a>, or temporary freeze, on the clinical use of germline gene editing technology in humans. (Germline editing means the genes that are edited are included in eggs and sperm, the “germ” cells, and can be passed on to following generations). </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-crispr-gene-editing-and-how-does-it-work-84591">What is CRISPR gene editing, and how does it work?</a>
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<p>The authors on the Nature report include some leaders in the development of CRISPR technologies, as well as bioethicists.</p>
<p>They propose a framework in which nations commit to not approve any clinical use of heritable gene editing unless some conditions are met on technical, societal, medical and ethical grounds. </p>
<p>In that process, they also argue that there should be an initial period during which no clinical use of germline editing is allowed at all. Research would still be allowed, provided embryos are used only in the very early stages in laboratory studies, and not transferred to a woman’s uterus to develop further. They suggest this period could last five years.</p>
<p>After this initial period, any participating country could allow a particular application of germline editing by following three steps: </p>
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<li>public notice of intent</li>
<li>transparent evaluation and justification of the application (considering not only the scientific and medical aspects, but also the related societal and ethical issues)</li>
<li>achievement of a broad consensus in the nation that this is an acceptable application.</li>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/researcher-claims-crispr-edited-twins-are-born-how-will-science-respond-107693">Researcher claims CRISPR-edited twins are born. How will science respond?</a>
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<h2>It’s about more than just science</h2>
<p>It is important that the evaluation considers not only the science of germline genetic modifications, but also the broader societal context. The authors mention the risk of discrimination, peer and marketing pressure, and unequal access to the technology if gene editing became available as a tool, for example in IVF clinics.</p>
<p>This moratorium would be limited to human germline editing only. This means modifying human sperm, eggs or embryos to make children whose DNA has been altered. Such changes pass through the generations, which is why germline editing is a particular area of concern. </p>
<p>The moratorium would not apply to changes in human cells not capable of reproduction (called somatic gene editing). <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41587-018-00003-2">Current efforts to treat blindness, sickle cell disease or cancer using CRISPR</a> would not be affected by the moratorium. </p>
<h2>Implications in Australia</h2>
<p>In Australia, germline genetic modification is not allowed, and is illegal.</p>
<p>According to the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2017C00306">Prohibition of Human Cloning for Reproduction Act (2002)</a> researchers can face up to 15 years in jail for modifying “the genome of a human cell in such a way that the alteration is heritable by descendants of the human whose cell was altered”. Therefore the implications for Australia will be limited, and applying the initial five-year freeze on any clinical use of germline editing would be seamless. </p>
<p>If Australia wishes to allow any clinical application of germline editing at some point in the future, this act would need to be revised. </p>
<p>The framework proposed in the moratorium call provides a basis for how such a revision could then be discussed: public notice, transparent and comprehensive consideration of the application, and national discussion. </p>
<h2>Voluntary and pragmatic</h2>
<p>The proposed moratorium is voluntary. This is a pragmatic approach. It would be very difficult to get international agreement on a ban. </p>
<p>As the authors note, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/palcomms201719">discussions on a legally binding convention to outlaw human cloning are not making much progress</a>. </p>
<p>In the absence of a binding agreement, a voluntary pledge can start to move the main stakeholders towards a workable solution. Other issues such as climate change have shown the limitations of international agreements, but even getting a limited number of countries on board would be a positive first step.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/designer-babies-wont-be-common-anytime-soon-despite-recent-crispr-twins-108342">'Designer' babies won't be common anytime soon – despite recent CRISPR twins</a>
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<h2>Change requires commitment</h2>
<p>The authors also call on those who work in fields where CRISPR is used, including the leaders of research institutes as well as individual researchers, to publicly pledge to the principles of the framework they have outlined. </p>
<p>It will be interesting to see how some other stakeholders respond. For instance, will funding agencies and scientific publishers come on board? One objection to moratoriums is that they do not prevent “rogue” entities or individuals from operating outside their framework. </p>
<p>If it was clear that no study would be funded or published unless it adhered to the principles of advance notice, full transparency and national approval, it would remove some of the incentives that sometimes turn scientific research into a race.</p>
<p>Ultimately, in each country, society as a whole will have to decide whether germline editing is acceptable, and under which circumstances. A meaningful consensus will only be achieved if an informed discussion takes place. </p>
<p>To date, issues around gene editing have been <a href="http://www.nationalacademies.org/gene-editing/2nd_summit/">mostly discussed among experts</a>. More than ever, engagement and education that includes diverse members of our society around advanced biotechnologies is crucial.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/113463/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dimitri Perrin has received funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC), the Australian-French Association for Innovation and Research (AFRAN), and the Advance Queensland programme.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gaetan Burgio receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), the Australian Research Council (ARC), the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) via the Australian Phenomics Network (APN) and the Natural Science Foundation in China (NSFC). </span></em></p>Four months ago a researcher claimed he had used the tool CRISPR to edit the genomes of twin girls. Now prominent researchers and ethicists are calling for a temporary halt to this sort of work.Dimitri Perrin, Senior Lecturer, Queensland University of TechnologyGaetan Burgio, Geneticist and Group Leader, The John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1037532018-09-24T20:14:27Z2018-09-24T20:14:27ZArt and science come together to examine the power and perversions of perfection<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237635/original/file-20180924-117383-6zwd9u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Patricia Piccinini, Graham, 2016 Installation view, </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Nicole Cleary</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Review: Perfection, Science Gallery Melbourne.</em></p>
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<p>It would be easy to assume that art and science occupy separate worlds. Art <a href="https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/currentstudents/undergraduate/modules/fulllist/first/en122/lecturelist-2015-16-2/shklovsky.pdf">invites</a> us to encounter “things as they are perceived and not as they are known” and relies on subjective experience to confirm value. Science strives to establish knowledge as fact through testing and peer review. Yet sitting at the core of both disciplines is the desire to employ curiosity, creativity, innovation and discovery to examine the world we live in. These intellectual frameworks create bridges between the two disciplines.</p>
<p>The intersection between art and science is the focus of <a href="https://perfection.sciencegallery.com/">Perfection</a>, the latest pop-up show for the Science Gallery Melbourne. Part exhibition, part experiment it asks: “What does it mean to be perfect?”</p>
<p>Curated by a panel that includes a particle physicist, a computer scientist, a plastic surgeon and a musicologist, Perfection offers a set of reflections, calculations and speculations that engage with ideas about the perfect body, mathematical precision, quantum physics and a post-human world. We are invited to consider the current state of things and to contemplate what might constitute an ideal future.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/spilling-blood-in-art-a-tale-of-tampons-trump-and-taboos-81455">Spilling blood in art, a tale of tampons, Trump and taboos</a>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237640/original/file-20180924-129862-kwwhv2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237640/original/file-20180924-129862-kwwhv2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237640/original/file-20180924-129862-kwwhv2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237640/original/file-20180924-129862-kwwhv2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237640/original/file-20180924-129862-kwwhv2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237640/original/file-20180924-129862-kwwhv2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=786&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237640/original/file-20180924-129862-kwwhv2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=786&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237640/original/file-20180924-129862-kwwhv2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=786&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">XORXOR, Perfect O, installation view.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image courtesy of the artists</span></span>
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<p>The slippages between art and science, and experiment and exhibition, are an active component of Perfection. Questions that straddle technology and art history are explored by XORXOR’s question: “Is it possible to draw a perfect circle?”</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237641/original/file-20180924-129862-2uxxq4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237641/original/file-20180924-129862-2uxxq4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237641/original/file-20180924-129862-2uxxq4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237641/original/file-20180924-129862-2uxxq4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237641/original/file-20180924-129862-2uxxq4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237641/original/file-20180924-129862-2uxxq4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237641/original/file-20180924-129862-2uxxq4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Marcus Volz, Lorenz Attractor 201, Digital animation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image courtesy the artist</span></span>
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<p>Marcus Volz’s digital animations, Lorenz Attractor and Natalina Cafra, employ complex 3D sculptural forms to visualise mathematical equations relating to atmospheric weather patterns and fractal diversity in molluscs. Reminiscent of late modernism and the idea of a perfect closed self-referencing system, these drawings ask whether art can be maths and maths can be art.</p>
<p>The lab-like conditions of Andy Gracie’s Fish, Plant, Rack v.2 speculate on a future post-human condition where the world goes on without us. In this experiment three systems interact: a blind fish emitting electrical impulses, a robot powered by the fish, and plants living in a hydroponic system. Other works that deal with non-human concerns explore ideas about a “perfect sound” and question whether light has consciousness. </p>
<p>The most prominent experiments in the exhibition, though, relate to the human body, identity and the self.</p>
<p>Throughout history, the body has been an abiding interest for artists — from the earliest forms of bodily adornment through Da Vinci’s concern with anatomy, to contemporary explorations of race, gender and sexuality. Technology takes things to a new level, enabling us to hack, modify and transform our bodies, and to use social media as a platform to manage our identity and present it to the world. As a potential extension of the body, the digital realm provides fertile ground for creative critique and exploration.</p>
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<span class="caption">Ant Hamlyn, The Boost Project, 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Nicole Cleary</span></span>
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<p>Ant Hamlyn’s The Boost Project and Tyler Payne’s Womanhours both address the pressures of social media. </p>
<p>Hamlyn’s six-metre-tall inflatable is a proxy for the body and the ego. Suspended from the ceiling, this giant orb gives form to the flux and fragility of an online presence. Each time it is liked via its <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/theboostproject">hashtag</a>, The Boost Project gets a 30-second burst of air. On a good day it has a substantial presence at the entrance of the gallery, but when it is ignored the orb slowly deflates, its firmness diminishes, and the suspended form takes on a droopy and dejected demeanour.</p>
<p>Payne’s Womanhours demonstrates the oppression of Instagram. In a series of videos, the artist employs her own body to reveal the level of self-correction needed to achieve the perfect self-portrait. She appears to endure an extreme physical and psychological makeover through female cosmetic rituals such as waxing, tanning, bleaching, plucking and shaving. The perfected self is captured for a fleeting moment in the virtual realm and the ritual is repeated all over again.</p>
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<span class="caption">Orlan, Omniprésence, 1993.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image courtesy of the artist</span></span>
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<p>Self-correction is also the subject of <a href="http://www.orlan.eu/">ORLAN</a>’s performance practice and her body is the canvas for experimentation. No need to repeat these rituals; the interventions are permanent. For decades, ORLAN has undergone plastic surgery in order to shape her face to reflect a version of beauty expressed in the Renaissance paintings. Her new brow resembles the Mona Lisa and her chin belongs to Botticelli’s Venus.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237636/original/file-20180924-129853-qxnduz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237636/original/file-20180924-129853-qxnduz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237636/original/file-20180924-129853-qxnduz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237636/original/file-20180924-129853-qxnduz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237636/original/file-20180924-129853-qxnduz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237636/original/file-20180924-129853-qxnduz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237636/original/file-20180924-129853-qxnduz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237636/original/file-20180924-129853-qxnduz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Adam Peacock, Genetics Gym, 2017, video still.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Nicole Cleary</span></span>
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<p>In Genetics Gym, Adam Peacock speculates on how genetic technologies could allow us to design our bodies and cognitive dispositions, ramping up the prospects of self-improvement beyond internal and external modification. </p>
<p>Similarly, in Demiurge, Jaden Hastings has accessed her entire gene sequence and used artificial intelligence to analyse potential risks and provide information about what needs to be fixed to achieve a perfect state. In doing so, the artist inserts the machine into the process of human evolution.</p>
<p>Most artists in this exhibition speculate on self-improvement with respect to health, function and beauty, but we might also be driven to modify ourselves through fear. What if the desire to survive a cataclysmic event was the catalyst for reshaping the human form? </p>
<p>Patricia Piccini’s Graham has the perfect body to walk away unscathed from a car crash. Created in collaboration with trauma surgeon Christian Kenfield and the Monash University Accident Research Centre, Graham’s honed and sculpted anatomy will withstand the impact of a 30kph collision. Paradoxically, the unintended consequences of Graham’s modified feet and ankles would appear to make walking very difficult.</p>
<p>Few of us would choose to look like Graham, but he is a metaphor for the lengths we will go to be safe. How far might we go to protect ourselves or our children from threats like terrorism or global warming?</p>
<p>The prospect of hacking, modifying and transforming our bodies presents an unexpected conundrum. Scientific and technological advances inevitably open up an unfettered realm of personal choice when innovations hit the marketplace. But in <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10639.The_Paradox_of_Choice">The Paradox of Choice</a>, economist Barry Schwartz shows that having too many options generates anxiety. It’s hard enough to choose a toothbrush today, let alone make an informed decision about the potential range of future body modifications.</p>
<p>Perfection raises questions about what constitutes a utopian or dystopian future, ethical or unethical practices, a perfect or an imperfect human. The exhibition provides no easy answers but invites us to shift our perception and engage with the world as it is now, and as it might one day become. Be careful what you wish for.</p>
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<p><em><a href="https://melbourne.sciencegallery.com/perfection-part-experiment-part-exhibition">Perfection</a> is showing at Science Gallery Melbourne until November 3 2018.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/103753/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julie Shiels does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A new Science Gallery Melbourne exhibition offers a set of reflections, calculations and speculations that engage with ideas about the perfect body, mathematical precision, quantum physics and a post-human world.Julie Shiels, Lecturer - School of Art, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/257532014-06-22T20:28:25Z2014-06-22T20:28:25ZGM techniques: from the field to the laboratory (and back again)<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51258/original/xjfm6mvm-1402969650.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Laboratory-based genetic modification is relatively new when you consider the centuries of selective breeding that precedes it.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ricephotos/8364141562">IRRI Photos/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Welcome to <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/gm-in-australia">GM in Australia</a>, a series looking at the facts, ethics, regulations and research into genetically modified crops. In this first instalment, Peter Langridge describes two GM techniques: selective breeding and genetic engineering.</em></p>
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<p>Genetic modification (GM) sounds very laboratory-based – people in white coats inserting and deleting <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-a-gene-12951">genes</a> – but the vast majority of GM work was completed in the field through selective breeding.</p>
<p>Early Middle Eastern farmers collected grain from natural grasslands, but they needed to time their harvest very carefully. If they were too early the grain wouldn’t store well, and if they were too late the grain would spread over the ground making collection difficult.</p>
<p>At some stage, one of these early farmers must have noticed that some heads remained fixed on their stems even after the grain was fully dry. He obviously didn’t understand this at the time, but these were plants with a mutation in the genes controlling seed dispersal.</p>
<p>Farmers began preferentially choosing plants with this useful mutation and planting them, perhaps the first case of breeding and selecting for a novel trait.</p>
<h2>Exploiting genetic variation</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51287/original/jdf5x58b-1402979267.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51287/original/jdf5x58b-1402979267.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51287/original/jdf5x58b-1402979267.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=759&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51287/original/jdf5x58b-1402979267.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=759&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51287/original/jdf5x58b-1402979267.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=759&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51287/original/jdf5x58b-1402979267.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=954&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51287/original/jdf5x58b-1402979267.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=954&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51287/original/jdf5x58b-1402979267.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=954&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gregor Mendel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>Systematic breeding really began in the early 1900s when scientists rediscovered Silesian monk Gregor Mendel’s <a href="http://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/gregor-mendel-and-the-principles-of-inheritance-593">groundbreaking work</a> on genetic inheritance in peas.</p>
<p>Breeding involves utilising genetic variation to produce new combinations of genes and gene variants. A breeder will cross two different lines and then select offspring that have improved performance.</p>
<p>Breeders are always looking for new sources of variation, normally from within the elite germplasm pool – that is, within established varieties. Many important traits, such as disease resistance, are controlled by single genes and can be crossed into elite lines, with only the resistant offspring selected.</p>
<p>But for many crops the level of diversity available within the elite germplasm pool is very narrow and breeders must look further afield for novel variation. This search led breeders to explore land races (varieties grown by traditional farmers) and even wild relatives (undomesticated progenitors of our modern crops). </p>
<p>In many cases crosses between the wild relatives and modern lines will not produce normal seeds, but the embryos can often be isolated from the developing seed and grown in sterile tissue culture to produce viable, fertile plants.</p>
<p>This technique, called <a href="http://naldc.nal.usda.gov/download/42085/PDF">embryo rescue</a>, has been widely used and many modern cultivars contain genes from wild relatives.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51304/original/g3dq6f26-1402982029.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51304/original/g3dq6f26-1402982029.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51304/original/g3dq6f26-1402982029.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51304/original/g3dq6f26-1402982029.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51304/original/g3dq6f26-1402982029.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51304/original/g3dq6f26-1402982029.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51304/original/g3dq6f26-1402982029.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51304/original/g3dq6f26-1402982029.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mr-morshee/4117842213">danbruell/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<p>The normal number of genes present in a crop plant is around 30,000 to 40,000 – the same as for humans. In making the crosses all 30,000 genes from the wild relative are introduced but the breeder may only want one gene.</p>
<p>The genes are linked along chromosomes with each chromosome carrying several thousand genes. The breeders need to break up the chromosomes from the wild relative into small fragments so that only the desired region is transferred – a process called chromosome engineering.</p>
<p>This can take several decades of work, making the use of wide crosses technically difficult and slow. Breeders want other methods of generating useful variation.</p>
<h2>Engineering mutations</h2>
<p>In the 1950s the idea of inducing mutations became an important technique for creating new variation. This involved using ionising radiation, such as X or gamma rays, or chemical mutagens.</p>
<p>These techniques produce random damage to the genetic information in the plant by changing the DNA directly or knocking out segments of the genome (the genetic make-up). Most mutations are deleterious, and the mutagenesis usually generates many thousands of unwanted changes, so the clean-up can be slow. </p>
<p>After exposing the plants to the mutagen, the breeders need to select for the beneficial mutations and remove the deleterious mutations.</p>
<p>Scientifically the ideal solution would be to be able to take a gene from any source and introduce it into your crop plant to change the plant’s characteristics. This would allow breeders to use variation from diverse sources and make changes just one gene at a time without the extensive collateral damage done by mutagenesis or wide crosses. This is what genetic engineering offers.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JMPE5wlB3Zk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<h2>Enter the lab coats …</h2>
<p>The first genetically engineered crops <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/80/15/4803.short">were produced in the 1980s</a> and, as in all areas of science, the technology continues to advance. The most widely used method today takes advantage of a natural DNA transfer mechanism.</p>
<p>Several groups of soil bacteria are able to engineer plants for their own benefit. These bacteria transfer a segment of their genome into the plant’s genome so that the transformed plant cells will proliferate and produce compounds that only the bacteria can use. In this way the bacteria control the plant development to produce nutrients for the bacteria.</p>
<p>The mechanisms for this type of natural genetic engineering are now well understood, allowing scientists to change the DNA segment transferred so that the genes causing altered plant growth are removed and new genes inserted.</p>
<p>How does this work practically? In a laboratory the scientist will design and build a DNA sequence containing specific sequences that delineate the region of DNA to be transferred (the left and right borders). They then insert the gene of interest and usually a selectable marker, such as resistance to a herbicide. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51308/original/dnf5zbwj-1402982216.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51308/original/dnf5zbwj-1402982216.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51308/original/dnf5zbwj-1402982216.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51308/original/dnf5zbwj-1402982216.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51308/original/dnf5zbwj-1402982216.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51308/original/dnf5zbwj-1402982216.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51308/original/dnf5zbwj-1402982216.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51308/original/dnf5zbwj-1402982216.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"><em>Agrobacterium tumefaciens</em> attaching to a plant cell.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>This construct is then introduced into a bacteria called <a href="http://www.nepadbiosafety.net/subjects/biotechnology/plant-transformation-agro"><em>Agrobacterium tumefaciens</em></a>, which readily takes up DNA. The bacteria are then applied to growing plant tissues in sterile culture.</p>
<p>After a period the bacteria are removed and the plant tissues placed onto media containing the herbicide. Only the plant cells that have been transformed (those that took up the construct from the bacterium) are able to grow and divide.</p>
<p>These cells are allowed to multiply and divide until they produce plants, which are taken out of sterile culture to a glasshouse where they can grow to maturity. The genes that have been transferred will now be included in the genetic make-up of the plant.</p>
<p>Different species and even varieties will differ in their ability to take up DNA from the bacterium and to regenerate normal plants. Where in the genome the new DNA inserts is usually random but will preferentially occur in regions containing active genes.</p>
<p>Extensive growth trials and evaluation are needed to ensure that the transgenic or genetically engineered plant behaves as expected.</p>
<h2>… and back to the field</h2>
<p>In Australia all aspects of genetic engineering research are closely regulated. The researcher, organisation and facilities used must all be licensed and meet tight standards.</p>
<p>Before a field trial can be grown, the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator (<a href="http://www.ogtr.gov.au/">OGTR</a>) conducts a detailed risk assessment of the genes used, the reasons for the trial, and the design and management of the trial site. </p>
<p>The OGTR have issued 103 licenses for field trials covering 14 different crops. In Australia 37 genetically engineered crops have been approved for commercial cultivation for seven different species, but only GM cotton (eight different events) and canola (three events) are grown to any great extent.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/basf/4837267013/in/photolist-gBsi5y-gBsMcB-gBthYi-gBtgT2-gBsifd-gBshWN-gBsLfY-gBsHL9-gBsHKB-gBtiaa-gBsLaX-gBsKDN-gBsK3N-gBsKpt-gBsbZC-gBseD5-gBteLr-gBsfQ3-gBsCeC-8nsfXp-gBsJUa-gBsdvU-gBsfkq-gBsESd-gBsbfS-gBtdDM-gBtdfa-gBtdo6-gBsDXB-gBsGBA-gBtdQt-gBsEr3-gBsdPQ-gBsC9B-gBt9L6-gBs8VG-gBsars-gBtbki-gBtam4-gBsCPL-gBsD6h-8Ze8pK-8Zhbbh-8ZhaYd-dQJkWp-5x5GGa-9sWJ3f-nxyYDp-9RPXGo-a86UDZ">BASF - The Chemical Company/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
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<p>The resistance to GM crops in many parts of the world has encouraged scientists to look for alternative techniques for making targeted changes to the genetic make-up of crops and other organisms. </p>
<p>For example, a new technique called “<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-genomic-editing-25072">genome editing</a>” allows us to make specific changes to native genes within the plant that are essentially identical to the changes induced by mutagenesis but at only one site rather than all over the genome. Mutagenesis is widely used and is not subject to regulation – will the same apply to genome editing?</p>
<p>There are other developments that are also challenging the community’s views on new technologies. How will people feel about GM crops where a native gene has been isolated, changed and re-inserted (a process known as <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24396278">cisgenics</a>)?</p>
<p>What about using GM rootstocks engineered for resistance to root diseases, but grafted with non-GM scion so that they produce non-GM apples or avocados?</p>
<p>These questions are now challenging the regulators since the first examples are starting to become available.</p>
<hr>
<p><em><strong>Further reading: <br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/setting-the-standards-who-regulates-australian-gm-food-25533">Setting the standards: who regulates Australian GM food?</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/safety-first-assessing-the-health-risks-of-gm-foods-26099">Safety first – assessing the health risks of GM foods</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/because-we-can-does-it-mean-we-should-the-ethics-of-gm-foods-28141">Because we can, does it mean we should? The ethics of GM foods</a></strong></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/25753/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Langridge receives research funding from Pioneer/Dupont, the Australian Research Council, the Grains Research and Development Corporation, the South Australian Government, Australia/India Strategic Research Fund and the US AID program . He provides advice to several public sector research organisation in Europe, North America and to international agricultural aid programs.</span></em></p>Welcome to GM in Australia, a series looking at the facts, ethics, regulations and research into genetically modified crops. In this first instalment, Peter Langridge describes two GM techniques: selective…Peter Langridge, CEO, Australian Centre for Plant Functional GenomicsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/250722014-04-01T19:47:56Z2014-04-01T19:47:56ZExplainer: what is genome editing?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/45257/original/zszg4zvm-1396326335.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Imagine your DNA as strands of fairy lights – and if a globe blew, you could remove it and pop in another.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/kyz/3340435836/sizes/l">kyz/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Mistakes in the paper version of the Encyclopædia Britannica took a long time to correct – years often passed between revised editions – but these days editing information is much easier. In electronic sources, like Wikipedia, anyone can log on and use simple web-based tools to make corrections or even improvements.</p>
<p>Human genomes also contain various errors or mutations. Many are relatively harmless but some cause life threatening genetic diseases. In a few cases, patients have been treated by conventional <a href="http://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-gene-therapy-19883">gene therapy</a>; new <a href="http://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-a-gene-12951">genes</a> have been carried in by viruses. These can then compensate for defective genes. But so far few – if any – patients have had their mutations corrected by genomic editing. </p>
<p>Likewise in the agricultural world, most applications of genetic engineering have involved inserting new genes, termed <a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/transgene">transgenes</a>, rather than using editing to incorporate desirable genetic variations.</p>
<h2>Synchronous technological revolutions</h2>
<p>This may all change now that new editing tools have come on the scene. A quiet revolution is occurring in our ability to modify living genomes.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/45246/original/9ff7b2sb-1396323793.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/45246/original/9ff7b2sb-1396323793.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/45246/original/9ff7b2sb-1396323793.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1419&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45246/original/9ff7b2sb-1396323793.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45246/original/9ff7b2sb-1396323793.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1419&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45246/original/9ff7b2sb-1396323793.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1783&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45246/original/9ff7b2sb-1396323793.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1783&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45246/original/9ff7b2sb-1396323793.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1783&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A printed human genome.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnjobby/2253775008/sizes/l">John Jobby/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>Most importantly the new editing tools have arrived in the midst of a second revolution – a revolution in our ability to <a href="http://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-the-human-genome-project-7559">sequence large genomes</a>. </p>
<p>The affordable sequencing of human genomes has allowed the ready identification of myriad harmful mutations. Conversely, in agriculturally important organisms, new beneficial gene variants have been identified. So it is becoming more and more relevant to think about editing such variants in or out.</p>
<p>At the same time the improvements in sequencing also mean that one can readily re-sequence after editing. One can check whether any unintended errors have been introduced. </p>
<p>The big advantage of genomic editing over the addition of new genes by gene therapy or transgenesis is that a defect is corrected, or a desired variation is introduced, via a single, targeted and permanent change. Since the change already exists in nature, it should work effectively, and it should be safe. </p>
<p>In contrast, gene therapy has been severely hampered by the <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-epigenetics-13877">epigenetic</a> silencing of transgenes, as well as by the unwanted insertion of new genes beside important growth control genes – <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14564000">that in one case led to uncontrolled cellular growth</a> and cancer.</p>
<h2>Tools for modifying genomes</h2>
<p>So what are these new genomic editing tools, where did they come from, how do they work, and why are they not more widely talked about?</p>
<p>As often happens the new tools came from fundamental research – research into DNA-binding proteins or the mechanisms by which bacteria protect themselves from viruses. The key development is that it is now much easier to design DNA-targeting reagents that – at least in theory – can surgically cut a single gene within a complex genome.</p>
<p>Breaks in DNA can be lethal so the cell has in-built machinery that repairs any nick as soon as possible. One strategy is to grab any available spare DNA that seems to match the damaged DNA and to stitch it in as a replacement – just as you might darn a red pair of socks with any red wool that you find lying about in the cupboard. This is called <a href="http://www.icr.ac.uk/research/team_leaders/Wigley_Dale/Wigley_Dale_RI/Repair_DNA_double_strand_breaks/index.shtml">homologous DNA repair</a>. </p>
<p>Genomic editing is carried out by introducing a specific DNA-cutting module along with a piece of repair DNA, carrying the change you want to incorporate. When the original DNA gets cut, the cell replaces it with the donor DNA.</p>
<h2>Surgically targetting chosen human genes</h2>
<p>People have studied DNA-binding and DNA-cutting proteins for a long time and many are known. But the first generation of these, <a href="http://www.nature.com/scitable/spotlight/restriction-enzymes-18458113">bacterial restriction enzymes</a>, recognised very short <a href="http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v24/n4/full/nbt0406-423.html">DNA sequences</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/45245/original/kgffq23x-1396323625.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/45245/original/kgffq23x-1396323625.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/45245/original/kgffq23x-1396323625.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45245/original/kgffq23x-1396323625.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45245/original/kgffq23x-1396323625.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45245/original/kgffq23x-1396323625.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45245/original/kgffq23x-1396323625.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45245/original/kgffq23x-1396323625.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">DNA base pairs: thymine and adenine, guanine and cytosine.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/georgebushlibrary/8009913640/sizes/l">Bush 41 Library/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The restriction enzyme <a href="http://pfam.sanger.ac.uk/family/EcoRI">EcoRI</a> (that helps the bacterium <em>E. coli</em> protect itself from invading DNA viruses) recognises and cuts sequences of the form GAATTC (a string of DNA subunits or <a href="http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/N/Nucleotides.html">nucleotides</a> and carrying in order a guanine, two adenines, two thymines and a cytosine). This sequence is only 6 units long and it occurs by chance millions of times in the human genome. </p>
<p>EcoRI is a useful tool when cutting and joining short pieces of DNA in the lab – pieces that only have one or two GAATTC motifs – but it is useless in terms of trying to surgically cut and repair a single human gene within our vast genome. </p>
<p>To get an idea of the importance of specificity, think of the Google search engine. If you typed in the word “editing” you might never find this article, but if you type in “genomic editing” you may. To be safe you could type in this whole sentence, or any other long sentence. The unique sequence of letters should be enough to take you right here.</p>
<h2>A better toolbox</h2>
<p>The first breakthrough in designing reagents that could target longer sequences came from the study of DNA-binding proteins in the model organism, the African clawed frog (<em><a href="http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/ReptilesAmphibians/Facts/FactSheets/Africanclawedfrog.cfm">Xenopus laevis</a></em>). </p>
<p>Nobel laureate <a href="http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1982/klug-bio.html">Aaron Klug</a>, who incidentally was a student with the late biophysicist <a href="http://www.sdsc.edu/ScienceWomen/franklin.html">Rosalind Franklin</a>, studied a protein called Transcription Factor for polymerase III A (<a href="http://jcs.biologists.org/content/109/3/535.full.pdf">TFIIIA</a>). </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/45247/original/gxhnfffc-1396323957.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/45247/original/gxhnfffc-1396323957.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/45247/original/gxhnfffc-1396323957.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=562&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45247/original/gxhnfffc-1396323957.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=562&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45247/original/gxhnfffc-1396323957.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=562&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45247/original/gxhnfffc-1396323957.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=707&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45247/original/gxhnfffc-1396323957.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=707&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45247/original/gxhnfffc-1396323957.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=707&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Three ‘zinc fingers’ – with zinc ions in green – bind to DNA.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Zinc_finger_DNA_complex.png">Thomas Splettstoesser/Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>His work showed that TFIIIA bound DNA via a series of short domains he called “<a href="http://symposium.cshlp.org/content/52/473.full.pdf">zinc fingers</a>” – because they curled around a zinc ion to form a shape that could stretch out to fit into the major groove of DNA. </p>
<p>He realised that each zinc finger could bind three nucleotides, and that by linking two zinc fingers together you could bind six. A protein of six zinc fingers can bind 18 base pairs, and so on. Like the long sentences mentioned above, 18-base pair sequences are sufficiently long to identify individual human genes.</p>
<p>These days many different artificial zinc fingers are available and can be linked together to target virtually any 18 base pair motif. </p>
<h2>Surgical instruments</h2>
<p>Artificial zinc finger proteins were then hooked up to DNA-cutting enzymes, or <a href="http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/421887/nuclease">nucleases</a>, to generate zinc finger nucleases. These have already proved effective in carrying out genomic editing – see the video below.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zDkUFzZoQAs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>But they have also turned out to be more difficult than expected to make – the rational design approach did not always lead to the desired specificity in practice and a certain amount of trial and error and screening of random variants was required to achieve acceptable specificity and tightness of binding. </p>
<p>Consequently, a few companies, such as <a href="http://www.sangamo.com/index.html">Sangamo Biosciences</a>, offered a service in making zinc finger nucleases but few laboratories adopted the technology themselves.</p>
<p>Now things have really changed since two new DNA-binding modules have come on the scene: </p>
<p><strong>1. Transcription activator-like effector nucleases (<a href="http://www.nature.com/nrm/journal/v14/n1/full/nrm3486.html">TALENs</a>)</strong>: these are based on DNA-binding proteins found naturally in bacteria that infect certain plants. </p>
<p>Like zinc finger proteins they are made up of repeated modules, and in this case each module binds to two bases. By linking nine domains together, scientists can make a protein that recognises 18 base pairs. </p>
<p>Most importantly the rules of binding have proved to be robust so that scientists can make modules to recognise any chosen doublet and these can then be stitched together. Many laboratories have eagerly adopted this technology to target their chosen genes.</p>
<p><strong>2. Clustered regulatory interspaced short palindromic repeats (<a href="http://www.nature.com/nmeth/journal/v11/n1/full/nmeth.2775.html">CRISPRs</a>)</strong>: these are similarly attractive. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/45250/original/r34h8xf8-1396324256.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/45250/original/r34h8xf8-1396324256.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/45250/original/r34h8xf8-1396324256.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45250/original/r34h8xf8-1396324256.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45250/original/r34h8xf8-1396324256.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45250/original/r34h8xf8-1396324256.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45250/original/r34h8xf8-1396324256.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45250/original/r34h8xf8-1396324256.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Crystal structure of a crispr-associated protein from the bacterium <em>Thermus thermophilus</em>.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.ebi.ac.uk/">Jawahar Swaminathan and MSD staff at the European Bioinformatics Institute</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>They occur naturally in bacteria and, like restriction enzymes, are involved in protecting their hosts from viruses. But unlike ZFNs and TALENs, they use a guide ribonucleic acid (<a href="http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/glossary=rna">RNA</a>) to find their target genes and they team up with a bacterial nuclease, Cas9, to execute the cutting. </p>
<p>This use of a guide RNA is important – RNA can base pair with DNA, using the well understood rules of <a href="http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/B/BasePairing.html">base pairing</a>. </p>
<p>It is now a simple matter to design CRISPRs against any desired sequence and many labs have swung into action and are doing just that.</p>
<h2>So why isn’t this revolution being talked about?</h2>
<p>The revolution has crept up on us because the breakthrough really revolves around better and cheaper tools rather than new ideas or concepts. Homologous recombination and genomic editing was already possible in simple organisms and it was feasible but expensive to make <a href="http://theconversation.com/animals-in-research-mice-14172">knock-out and knock-in mice</a>. But it was slow and laborious. Now it is easier.</p>
<p>The other point concerns specificity. We know we can make the desired changes but we do not know how many other unintended changes are also being introduced.</p>
<p>In agriculture, if the sum of all changes results in the desired outcome, other unintended changes may not matter. But before anyone embarks on human genomic editing we will want to know about any off-target effects. With the availability of affordable genomic sequencing this should be possible and it is reasonable to be optimistic that refinements in specificity and nuclease delivery will, one day, make genomic editing a useful new therapeutic tool.</p>
<p>We will have to think carefully, however, before encouraging everyone to dive in to be a biological Wikipedia editor at home.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/25072/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Merlin Crossley receives funding from the Australian Research Council and National Health and Medical Research Council.</span></em></p>Mistakes in the paper version of the Encyclopædia Britannica took a long time to correct – years often passed between revised editions – but these days editing information is much easier. In electronic…Merlin Crossley, Dean of Science and Professor of Molecular Biology, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/95752012-10-25T19:29:51Z2012-10-25T19:29:51ZMoney in the gene bank: save the ‘Frozen Zoo’ and save species<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/16300/original/w6c35y6g-1349744285.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Saving the Tasmanian Devil is one of many pressing preservation goals.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mandy Kennedy/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>You may have heard of <a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-frozen-zoo-and-the-risk-of-extinction-565">Australia’s “Frozen Zoo”</a> – the only facility of its kind on the continent – and that it’s facing funding difficulties. Why should you care about this? Let me explain. </p>
<p>An increasing number of Australian native species are <a href="http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened">on the brink of extinction</a>, and the Frozen Zoo has a part to play in preventing this. </p>
<p>When it was established in 1995, the zoo – or <a href="http://www.australianfrozenzoo.com/">Animal Gene Storage and Resource Centre of Australia</a> (AGSRCA) to give it its full name – was the world’s first national wildlife gene bank.</p>
<p>And yes, I have a vested interest. I instigated its foundation, along with Professor Alan Trounson and Dr. John Kelly.</p>
<p>Since the AGSRCA began, similar new gene banks have been established across the globe – such as <a href="http://www.frozenark.org">The Frozen Ark</a> which commenced in the UK in 2004, and now leads a <a href="http://www.frozenark.org/consortium">global consortium</a> of such biobanks.</p>
<p>Such facilities offer the development of unique technical services to assist in the preservation of endangered and threatened wildlife species.</p>
<h2>Gene banks</h2>
<p>Gene banks are defined as the systematic and organised collection, processing, storage and future use of biological material. The resources comprise samples of semen, testes, embryos, body tissues, cell lines and stem cells collected from both live and dead animals. </p>
<p>Through advances in assisted reproductive technology, gene banks offer real potential to assist in the genetic management of displaced, dispersed or fragmented populations and the ability save wild and captive populations.</p>
<p>Gene banks have become our insurance policy for the future – a guarantee that, in the case of potential catastrophes (disease outbreaks, fires, floods, wars, climate change), it will still be possible to save our native wildlife species.</p>
<h2>What’s the problem?</h2>
<p>Despite the best efforts of national and international conservation bodies it’s predicted that <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8338880.stm">at least 30%</a> of all wild land, fresh-water and marine animals will become extinct within 50 years.</p>
<p>The historic record and future for Australian wildlife has been, and continues to be, extremely bleak. This is largely due to increasing human population, feral predators, climate change, habitat destruction, agricultural land use, over-fishing and acidification of the oceans.</p>
<p>There are three equally important or valuable strategies to halt (or try to) this rapid loss of biodiversity:</p>
<p>1) maintain or increase the area of natural habitats (forests, wetlands, rivers and oceans) that offer protected homes to given species</p>
<p>2) collect representative species to be held and bred in captivity, such as in zoos, aquariums, and so on</p>
<p>3) establish and maintain permanent safe reserves of genetic material collected from threatened populations, in genetic banks such as the AGSRCA or The Frozen Ark.</p>
<p>If we accept the chances of safely maintaining all wildlife in its natural habitats are minimal, I would strongly argue we should use all available resources to save as many species as possible. </p>
<p>The optimum conservation-species preservation program integrates habitat protection, management of wild populations and threatening processes, captive breeding and scientific aids comprising the use of assisted reproductive technology and genetic resource banks. </p>
<p>Total collaboration of all resources can achieve a positive result.</p>
<p>Between 1995 and 2006, the AGSRCA centre at Monash University received wildlife samples from throughout Australia and internationally. These included more than 100 species (plus multiple individuals within some species). </p>
<p>Some examples are the <a href="http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/publications/northern-hairynosed.html">northern hairy-nosed wombat</a>, the <a href="http://www.sharkbay.org/Greaterstick-nestratfactsheet.aspx">stitch-nest rat</a>, the <a href="http://archive.innovation.gov.au/Biotechnologyonline/enviro/bilby.html">bilby</a>, and the <a href="http://julianrocks.net/Featured2/GNSfeature.php">grey nurse shark</a>.</p>
<h2>Hard times</h2>
<p>Since 2006, the Frozen Zoo has been without growth and in hibernation – it has been maintained in maximum security, with its samples stored in liquid nitrogen at -196°C at Monash University.</p>
<p>The AGSRCA was established with Commonwealth funding and was assisted for ongoing research and staff by dedicated volunteers and corporate supporters. The Commonwealth funding came to an end in 2006. </p>
<p>Further attempts to raise funds to maintain and expand the collection have failed. The time has now come to determine the future of this collection, the only one of its kind in Australia.</p>
<p>So, do we close down the gene bank along with the loss of its rare and valuable genetic resources? Or is there another alternative for the collection to remain in Australia?</p>
<p>Australia <a href="http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicthreatenedlist.pl?wanted=fauna">continues to lose</a> its wildlife species and genetic resources while other countries – including Germany, England, India, America, South Africa and New Zealand – recognise the value of gene banking and assisted breeding technology and are committed to saving their wildlife species for future generations.</p>
<p>For a small input of approximately A$100,000 annually the environment could reap a significant reward. The potential to save even one endangered species such as the <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/05/080521-endangered-devils.html">Tasmanian Devil</a> would be, to my mind, total compensation. </p>
<p>This is realistic and similar rewards have been achieved in the US and the UK.</p>
<p>Keeping the Frozen Zoo on ice will not be enough to move forward with such important goals.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/9575/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The AGSRCA Gene Bank is held and maintained at Monash University in the Department of Immunology and Stem Cell Laborities.
The AGSRCA is affiated with the Frozen Ark UK.</span></em></p>You may have heard of Australia’s “Frozen Zoo” – the only facility of its kind on the continent – and that it’s facing funding difficulties. Why should you care about this? Let me explain. An increasing…Ian Gunn, Veterinarianr; Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Services; Project Director of AGSRCA, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/96472012-09-18T04:28:33Z2012-09-18T04:28:33ZWhere should we draw the line on ‘designer’ babies?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/15591/original/f23ws7nb-1347928172.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Genetic modification for treating illness may be obligatory; the real question is where we draw the line.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Fufue</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Leafing through the popular press it’s easy to see that the baby industry is big business: designer labels in size 000; prams that deftly allow running parents to take baby along and pick up a single origin soy latte on the way; endless programs for developing musical ability; nursery décor that makes Grand Designs look positively pedestrian.</p>
<p>Design has permeated pregnancy, babies and all that that entails. And if it floats your boat, why not? We live in a time and in a nation that values – indeed enshrines – free choice.</p>
<p>But what if baby design starts earlier? What if we chose to manipulate the genetic make up of our children before they were born?</p>
<p>Of course this is already possible to some degree and is happening in clinics and laboratories all over the world through <a href="http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/health-ethics/australian-health-ethics-committee-ahec/assisted-reproductive-technology-art/assisted-">reproductive technologies</a>. Embryos found to have genes associated with disabilities are already discarded. Sex-linked conditions remove all babies of the implicated sex from the pool of possible implants.</p>
<p>For the couples concerned this is entirely understandable. We all want our baby to be perfect, or at least the best baby we can possible have.</p>
<p>But what does this mean on a global scale? And what if we move beyond addressing serious medical conditions to determining those other physical characteristics we want in our babies?</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/15581/original/pscvchnp-1347865249.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/15581/original/pscvchnp-1347865249.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/15581/original/pscvchnp-1347865249.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/15581/original/pscvchnp-1347865249.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/15581/original/pscvchnp-1347865249.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/15581/original/pscvchnp-1347865249.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/15581/original/pscvchnp-1347865249.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Discussions about the ethics of genetic design need to come before the technology.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Edgar Barany</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This is a serious discussion that needs to be had, before technology overtakes our capacity to think through the long-term implications of designing babies for such traits as eye colour, sex or sporting ability.</p>
<p>Currently, any options for medical genetic intervention are the domain of the wealthy, so the impact is perhaps not yet significant. It’s hard to imagine such choices being made available to mothers in the refugee camps of Indonesia or the Kibera slum in Kenya or for thousands of parents in Australia similarly in the public system. But there are long-term consequences along class and economic lines which are yet to be explored.</p>
<p>What can we learn from history?</p>
<p>Designing future generations is as old as civilisation. Whole dynasties rested upon the selection of the right and proper partners to carry on royal lineages, sometimes with quite imperfect results. Humans have always selected life partners, either consciously or unconsciously, based on certain characteristics that are deemed desirable.</p>
<p>A more recent example of “designing practices” on a large scale is China’s one child policy. This was launched, with good intentions, to address a burgeoning population problem.</p>
<p>But now in its second generation, the policy has seen millions of only children who have no aunts, no uncles and no cousins, each with four doting grandparents. Male children were preferred and couples were allowed to have second child only if their first was a girl.</p>
<p>Today a number of social problems remain. It’s estimated there are <a href="http://factsanddetails.com/china.php?itemid=128&catid=4&subcatid=15#05">six million undocumented children in China</a>. Most of them are believed to be girls. Older grandparents now in failing health have no informal family supports and only children have enormous pressures to fulfil family obligations. </p>
<p>As <a href="http://www.economist.com/node/18988496">The Economist has noted</a>, once the supertanker of demography has gained steam, it takes decades to turn it around.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/15592/original/9v6czt8s-1347928344.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/15592/original/9v6czt8s-1347928344.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/15592/original/9v6czt8s-1347928344.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/15592/original/9v6czt8s-1347928344.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/15592/original/9v6czt8s-1347928344.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/15592/original/9v6czt8s-1347928344.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/15592/original/9v6czt8s-1347928344.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">We all want our baby to be perfect, or at least the best baby we can possible have.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tampa Band Photos</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Choosing the genetic makeup of your child before birth also removes serendipity from the equation. The child becomes the product of designing parents who might determine they should be taller or blonder when they would have been a little shorter and brunette.</p>
<p>Harvard University professor Michael Sandel <a href="http://books.google.com.au/books/about/The_Case_Against_Perfection.html?id=ael6tIvalIUC&redir_esc=y">argues</a> that this kind of hubristic motivation for genetic enhancements is deeply problematic and raises questions about the nature of parent-child relationships. He suggests that parents driven to enhance their children may be more likely to seek mastery over the mystery of birth and to express attitudes at odds with the norm of unconditional love.</p>
<p>Genetic modification, for treating illness such as gene therapy to reduce muscular dystrophy, however, may be obligatory. The real question is where we draw the line. Is it to eradicate a predisposition to a chronic disease later in life? Or remove genes for fair skin in tropical climates? And when do we cross from medical modification into the territory of aesthetic enhancement?</p>
<p>How do ordinary parents make these choices? For the most part we rely heavily on those in the clinics and hospitals.</p>
<p>Parents allegedly have choice about whether they continue with the pregnancy when an abnormality is detected. And the vast majority of parents do decide to terminate. But is it a constrained choice, offered to women caught up in a highly charged emotional situation who <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0897189708000141">want to</a> “do the right thing”.</p>
<p>As disability researcher and advocate Lisa Bridle <a href="http://www.intellectualdisability.info/diagnosis/confronting-the-distortions-mothers-of-children-with-down-syndrome-and-prenatal-testing">explains</a> about testing for disability:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Testing is already presented as not only benign and unproblematic, but also as fulfilling responsible pregnant behaviour. Alongside the construction of prenatal testing as ‘beneficial medical advance’ and the commercial drives to expand testing options, disability continues to be constructed in wholly negative and prejudicial ways.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Understanding these issues requires a wider and deeper engagement with the citizenry. How can ordinary people grapple with the science, the technologies and most importantly the longer term consequences of a particular path? </p>
<p>Importantly, and as a start, prospective parents need more opportunities for an open a full discussion on the ethics, science and longer term consequences of these technologies as they are developed.</p>
<p>Far from being settled, the social and ethical issues of genetic enhancement and modification are in desperate need of more exposure and discussion.</p>
<p><strong><em>Lesley Chenoweth will argue against the concept of designer babies at the <a href="http://www.iq2oz.com/events/event-details/2012-series-sydney/september.php">Intelligence Squared public debate</a> in Sydney tonight.</em></strong></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/9647/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lesley Chenoweth has received funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>Leafing through the popular press it’s easy to see that the baby industry is big business: designer labels in size 000; prams that deftly allow running parents to take baby along and pick up a single origin…Lesley Chenoweth, Professor of Social Work; Head of Logan Campus, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/85332012-08-21T20:07:41Z2012-08-21T20:07:41ZTaking over from evolution: how technology could enhance humanity<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/14406/original/rcp7ncxg-1345427085.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Technology offers great possibility of enhancing human capacity.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ars Electronica</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Human brains evolved over the last four million years in response to the interaction between environmental challenges and behaviours that enabled us to overcome these challenges. But the future of the brain may be more directly in human hands.</p>
<p>Our ancestors became more successful at ensuring their survival with greater behavioural complexity over time. So their bodies grew in size because of more efficient ways of obtaining foods. And the advantages of greater body size and strength provided security from predator attacks. </p>
<p>As our bodies were growing taller – from about 1.2 metres 3.5 million years ago to about 1.7 metres at the end of the Ice Age some 10,000 years ago, brain expansion followed. This is not surprising because bigger bodies need more nerve cells to control them. But this part may come as a surprise – during the last few thousand years, especially from the time the oldest civilisations arose (about 5,000 years ago) our brains became smaller (yes, smaller!) by about 10%.</p>
<p>This process sped up in the last 2,000 years (see the graph below). If the size of human brain was related to mental ability, this would contradict the increasing sophistication of human knowledge during our recent history.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/14413/original/fnvp6ppb-1345431368.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/14413/original/fnvp6ppb-1345431368.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/14413/original/fnvp6ppb-1345431368.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14413/original/fnvp6ppb-1345431368.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14413/original/fnvp6ppb-1345431368.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14413/original/fnvp6ppb-1345431368.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14413/original/fnvp6ppb-1345431368.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14413/original/fnvp6ppb-1345431368.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">From M. Henneberg (2006) The rate of human morphological microevolution and taxonomic diversity of hominids.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Studies in Historical Anthropology</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Recent research suggests that the gene ASPM, which regulates brain growth, is still directing brain evolution. But since the brain is neuro-plastic (changed by learning), in the future it may be enhanced using various biotechnologies. These technologies may include brain-machine interfaces, nootropic substances (drugs for enhancing memory and cognition) and human-non-human gene splicing.</p>
<h2>Brain-machine interfaces</h2>
<p>Knowledge of how nerve cells communicate with each other to process information in our brains (connecting electric signals by chemicals) can now be used to improve brain function. Electrical interfaces between machines and nerve cells can allow direct input of electronically-processed information into our nervous system. Artificial cochlear implants “talk” to our auditory cortex and the first electronic chips were connected to human visual tracts this year, allowing blind patients to see.</p>
<p>In the future, brain-machine interfaces may offer further improved sensory and cognitive abilities. Futurist thinkers, such as Ray Kurzweil, believe that in the near future neural implants will be so widespread that humans will need them in order to live normally in a high-tech society. </p>
<p>It could even be conceivable that future humans may order “designer label” neural implants that work in tandem with novel virtual reality technologies to produce a kaleidoscope of experiences. Such technologies may provide us with deeper insights into human nature, spirituality and the universe. Just imagine a neural implant working with virtual reality to create fantastical worlds.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/14400/original/p5hcypzn-1345425475.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/14400/original/p5hcypzn-1345425475.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=638&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14400/original/p5hcypzn-1345425475.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=638&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14400/original/p5hcypzn-1345425475.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=638&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14400/original/p5hcypzn-1345425475.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=802&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14400/original/p5hcypzn-1345425475.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=802&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14400/original/p5hcypzn-1345425475.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=802&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Technological innovations are capable of improving brain function.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons/NASA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Future technologies may also be capable of enhancing alternate forms of communication, such as telepathy. The American Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is currently in the process of creating a “telepathic helmet” that may offer a technology-based form of telepathic communication between soldiers. If the helmet proves to be successful, it may open the way for the creation of similar telepathic devices that could be used by civilians. These would be veritable “mind machines”!</p>
<h2>New nootropics</h2>
<p>We also face the prospect of cosmetic neurology – the use of nootropics (drugs that enhance memory or cognitive functions). Mind-enhancing agents such dextro-amphetamine are sometimes used by university students as a study aid, while modafinil is said to improve memory and attention. </p>
<p>Some people in the highly competitive business world are using various nootropics to give them a “mental edge”. While this may be an increasing trend, future-designed nanotechnology-based drugs will offer greater precision and efficiency in stimulating the brain. </p>
<p>Indeed, as precise knowledge of brain functions increases, we may be able to create better nootropics. Such drugs may be able to construct brain molecules or enhance areas of the brain, helping individuals develop new talents and abilities.</p>
<h2>The promise of gene technology</h2>
<p>Gene therapy in the form of splicing human and animal DNA may provide certain cognitive advantages. According to <a href="https://theconversation.com/peer-review-enhancing-human-capacities-1309">Oxford scholar Julian Savulescu</a>, splicing human and animal DNA may not only enhance human cognition and perception but will have wider health and social benefits. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/14398/original/8skynsyn-1345425119.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/14398/original/8skynsyn-1345425119.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=641&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14398/original/8skynsyn-1345425119.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=641&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14398/original/8skynsyn-1345425119.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=641&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14398/original/8skynsyn-1345425119.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=806&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14398/original/8skynsyn-1345425119.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=806&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14398/original/8skynsyn-1345425119.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=806&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Human gene therapy is a genuine possibility for the future.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons/Jerome Walker.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We could improve memory function, for instance, by transferring the elephant gene responsible for long-term memory to humans. Similarly, human night vision could be enhanced by splicing owl gene. Such novel splicing could have a number of social implications, from reducing night-time road accidents to assisting rescue teams.</p>
<p>The 21st century and beyond promises an array of novel methods for enhancing human cognition. Perhaps such improvements will enable future humans to find long-lasting solutions to global problems, as well as to go to the stars. Such promises, however, can be fulfilled only if we all value learning and intellectual development over short-term commercial gains.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/8533/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Arthur Saniotis is an international member of the Centre for Evolutionary Medicine, University of Zürich.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maciej Henneberg does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Human brains evolved over the last four million years in response to the interaction between environmental challenges and behaviours that enabled us to overcome these challenges. But the future of the…Arthur Saniotis, Visiting Research Fellow in the School of Medical Sciences, University of AdelaideMaciej Henneberg, Professor of Anthropological and Comparative Anatomy, University of AdelaideLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.