CRISPR Gene Editing Life Saver and Ghoulish Threat
This is the show from Wednesday, April 20th, 2016
SUMMARY:
After getting news from the front from Jo Scott, Bob Enyart talks with Scott about this astounding technology that is both a wonderful tool and a cheap way to unleash unspeakable horror. CRISPR is named for part of a bacteria's defense system identified in 2007 that in 2013 was turned it into a tool for genetic engineering. Here at BEL & Real Science Radio, we've chatted with the inventor of the Gene Gun, Cornell geneticist Dr. John Sanford who is a young-earth creationist. And on Friday we're interviewing RSR's targeted antibodies expert (and young-earth creationist) on the latest extraordinary results curing Leukemia in patients with advanced stage cancer. So CRISPR is a technology that we will be following, for better and for worse. Already, researchers have used CRISPR to reverse mutations that cause blindness; they’ve stopped cancer cells from multiplying; and they’ve made cells impervious to the AIDS virus, HIV. And of course there are the genetic disorders that scientists will use CRISPR to fight, including Cystic Fibrosis, Down Syndrome, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, Sickle-cell disease, and Tay-Sachs. But then there are the CRISPR horrors, making it easier to create human/animal hybrids and designer babies, and it is increasing the demand for living human embryos from fertility clinics to experiment on, and for harvested baby parts from abortion mills. And then there's the possible unintended disasters from genetic engineering gone awry of insects, bacteria, etc. And even the ill-intentioned applications of using CRISPR to create bioweapons including ethnically-targeted weapons such as those that terror groups like ISIS could use to target Jews.
This is the show from Wednesday, April 20th, 2016
SUMMARY:
After getting news from the front from Jo Scott, Bob Enyart talks with Scott about this astounding technology that is both a wonderful tool and a cheap way to unleash unspeakable horror. CRISPR is named for part of a bacteria's defense system identified in 2007 that in 2013 was turned it into a tool for genetic engineering. Here at BEL & Real Science Radio, we've chatted with the inventor of the Gene Gun, Cornell geneticist Dr. John Sanford who is a young-earth creationist. And on Friday we're interviewing RSR's targeted antibodies expert (and young-earth creationist) on the latest extraordinary results curing Leukemia in patients with advanced stage cancer. So CRISPR is a technology that we will be following, for better and for worse. Already, researchers have used CRISPR to reverse mutations that cause blindness; they’ve stopped cancer cells from multiplying; and they’ve made cells impervious to the AIDS virus, HIV. And of course there are the genetic disorders that scientists will use CRISPR to fight, including Cystic Fibrosis, Down Syndrome, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, Sickle-cell disease, and Tay-Sachs. But then there are the CRISPR horrors, making it easier to create human/animal hybrids and designer babies, and it is increasing the demand for living human embryos from fertility clinics to experiment on, and for harvested baby parts from abortion mills. And then there's the possible unintended disasters from genetic engineering gone awry of insects, bacteria, etc. And even the ill-intentioned applications of using CRISPR to create bioweapons including ethnically-targeted weapons such as those that terror groups like ISIS could use to target Jews.
