CRISPR and crispier

CRISPR or ‘Clustered regularly-interspaced short palindromic repeats’ is a genetic engineering feat that has been borrowed/learned from bacteria that have been using the technique to defend themselves against viral infections for hundreds of millions of years. Yep, even E. coli can catch a cold and don’t like it. Viruses that attack bacteria are called bacteriophage or simply phages

Anyway, CRISPR is one method to alter or edit a strand of DNA. The majority of the thousands of bacterial species in existence have developed this defense mechanism. Clever eh? An aside here: the fact that ALL living creatures on this planet – viruses and bacteria included, along with plants and us animals, all use the same code system for their genetic material - is huge evidence that we are all from a single point of creation close to 4 billion years ago, and are therefore all related to one other.

Now it has been suggested that the CRISPR technique of genetic engineering be used to cripple the DNA of Aedes aegypti  the species of mosquito that carries the Zika virus, plus the dengue and chikungunya viruses, thus wiping out this species of mosquito which threatens the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in the coming years, spreading up into the United States further and further north as climate change continues to bring warmer and wetter weather.

BUT, already the alarm bells are being sounded – ooh we mustn’t harm this cute little mosquito. OK not quite in those terms. But let’s get things in perspective. We’re happy to kill viruses and bacteria and wish we could totally eradicate those that cause TB and the plague etc. But then there are other bacteria such as E. coli that we depend on for our digestion, and can’t live without. Another aside: I get irritated when the evening news talks of an outbreak of E. coli – heh, I have a billion inside of me – I hope. What they mean is a rogue strain of E. coli with some altered DNA; but let’s not get sidetracked.

OK you say, it’s fine to kill viruses and bacteria but a mosquito is an animal. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) over three thousand species of animals are in the process of being obliterated, mainly through human action, and few people care a ---- . Among these are the Siberian tiger, the Brown spider monkey (a fairly close relative of mine) and the blue-throated Macaw – a beautiful bird; all more closely related to me than a mosquito. OK: yes, we should ascertain the biological linkages of the Aedes mosquito: is it an important food source for some other creature? does it play a part in some pollination? Etc. etc. But what should not be dismissed, before any research has been done, is to even look at this possible avenue of removing this serious threat to human life.

I live in the Boston area and our regional newspaper The Boston Globe really has had its knickers in a twist over gene-editing in recent days with several articles critical of the process. Apparently the idea behind it comes from the billionaire owner of the newspaper. The article today is classic - reporting on a phone survey. It begins: “Most Americans oppose using powerful new technology (note the phraseology) to alter the genes of unborn babies, even to prevent serious inherited diseases, according to a new poll.” I’m not at all surprised. The USA is the only western nation where the majority of the population is so poorly educated, at least in the life sciences, that they don’t even accept the truth of evolution – a fact that has been known for many decades and is accepted in the rest of the developed world.  Americans hear the term DNA used in crime dramas on TV all the time but the vast majority won’t know what the letters stand for let alone how DNA operates in our bodies. So if asked over the phone if they want DNA manipulated in a lab, and using creepy CRISPR too, of course they’re going to flip and say NO.

I’m a proud member of the National Committee for Science Education NCSE. We are working to try and ensure that public school students are taught the wonderful truths of the life sciences, which in too many states they are not.  23% of biology teachers in public schools refuse to teach evolution. Without that basic concept one cannot understand how this wonderful and complex world of nature works and interacts. We should support the important research being done to understand gene editing, CRISPR included, and how we can use this knowledge to save human lives.