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Updated | Late last week, reports emerged that scientists in Oregon had used gene-editing technology, known as CRISPR-Cas9, to edit a human embryo. While research like this is already occurring in China and Great Britain, this is the first time scientists in the U.S. have edited an embryo. The move raises the question of whether regulations are strict enough in the U.S. Both Congress and the National Institutes of Health have explicitly said they would not fund research that uses gene-editing to alter embryos. But laws and guidelines are not keeping pace with this fast-moving and controversial work. CRISPR is an experimental biomedical technique in which scientists are able to alter DNA, such as change the “misspellings” of a gene that contributes to mutations. The technology has the potential to reverse and eradicate congenital diseases if it can be used successfully on a developing fetus. Keep up with this story and more by subscribing now Here's how CRISPR gene editing works. REUTERS The news frenzy that followed this announcement was based on a leak from unknown sources. Initial reports emerged from a number of less known sources, including MIT Technology Review, that Shoukhrat Mitalipov of Oregon Health and Science University used the technology to change the DNA of not just one, but “a number of” embryos. But the news stories about this research weren’t based on a published study, which means they don’t provide the full picture. No one yet knows what the researchers did or what the results were. Until now, most of the breakthrough research on CRISPR—aside from the discovery itself, which is attributed to multiple research groups in the U.S.— has occurred in China. In April 2015, Chinese scientists reported that they’d edited the genome of human embryos, a world first, in an attempt to eliminate the underlying cause of a rare blood disorder. Researchers there have also been experimenting with CRISPR technology to treat cancer. Last spring, a team of scientists at Sichuan University’s West China Hospital used the approach to modify immune cells in a patient with an aggressive form of lung cancer. The researchers altered genes in a bid to empower the cells to combat the malignancy. Another group of Chinese scientists tried changing genes in blood that were then injected into a patient with a rare form of head and neck cancer to suppress tumor growth. Despite potential of CRISPR to cure fatal diseases, the technology has fast become one of the most significant challenges for bioethicists. Some people view its power as potentially dangerous because it could allow scientists to cherry-pick genetic traits to create so-called designer babies. Arthur Caplan, a professor of bioethics at New York University's Langone Medical Center and founding director of NYULMC's division of medical ethics thinks the fears are overblown. Gene-editing technology, says Caplan, is nowhere near this sci-fi fantasy. “If you would compare this to a trip to Mars, you're basically launching some satellites,” says Caplan. He suggests that much of the media coverage on CRISPR is melodramatic, including last week’s coverage of researchers meddling with an embryo. “We haven't shown that you can fix a disease or make someone smarter.” Lack of Guidelines CRISPR technology isn’t ready for clinical use, whether to stop serious genetic diseases or simply make brown eyes blue. But geneticists are working toward these goals, and the scientific community is ill-prepared to regulate this potentially powerful technology. So far guidelines for using CRISPR are minimal. In 2015, the National Institutes of Health issued a firm statement. “Advances in technology have given us an elegant new way of carrying out genome editing, but the strong arguments against engaging in this activity remain,” the NIH said in its statement. “These include the serious and unquantifiable safety issues, ethical issues presented by altering the germline in a way that affects the next generation without their consent, and a current lack of compelling medical applications justifying the use of CRISPR/Cas9 in embryos.” |
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The American hostage held by the Taliban and released earlier this month has recounted the only positive about her family’s imprisonment: She was still able to home-school her children. Caitlin Boyle, referred to as Caitlin Coleman because of her name before her marriage to Canadian husband and fellow captive Joshua Boyle, told NBC News about how she educated her three children, particularly in mathematics, when they were old enough to begin learning. “One part of our imprisonment that we can take pride in was our schooling of the boys. We had no educational supplies, but we did as much as we could in the circumstances,” Boyle wrote to the news site. “We were both home-schooled ourselves growing up, and wanted to give our children the same attention and home-schooling opportunities we had.” Keep up with this story and more by subscribing now A Taliban-linked organization known as the Haqqani Network kidnapped the pair when they were backpacking through Afghanistan in 2012. They were held for almost five years, during which time they sought to educate their three children, especially the eldest, four-year-old Najaeshi Jonah Boyle. "We were able to teach Najaeshi a lot of history, some facts about nearly 100 countries around the world, and pretty much all of his elementary school math,” Boyle wrote. “He’s fantastic at adding, subtracting, knows his times tables up to 12, loves the abstract ideas he has of perimeters and areas from pseudo-measuring our cells." Caitlin Coleman and her Canadian husband, Joshua Boyle, were captured by the Taliban-linked Haqqani network while hiking in Afghanistan in late 2012. Getty Images The pair endured years of tortuous conditions and mistreatment: They said that a fourth child, an infant daughter, was murdered, and Coleman was raped by a Taliban commander. The couple now plan to continue to educating children at home. "Growing up I loved the personalized curriculum that homeschooling offered, and hope now to give the same to my children,” Coleman said. “Field trips to local historical sites and nature parks, projects and experiments and crafts abound in my memory and Joshua’s.” “At times when we were able we would try with cardboard boxes or scraps of fabric to replicate that for Najaeshi and Dhakwoen, but now being free I am rejoicing that their homeschooling will continue with resources to make it much broader and more fun.” As well as home-schooling, Boyle said that memories of her hometown of York, Pennsylvania, improved her mood on some of the darkest days in the almost five years of captivity. "So much of my childhood and even 20s were spent in York county, it has shaped me, and my fond memories helped to brighten some of the dark days," Coleman wrote in her first public statement following her release, delivered in an email to local newspaper the York Daily Record. Pakistani soldiers secured the release of the couple and their children from the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan by shooting the tires of the car carrying them after it crossed into Pakistani territory, following advance warning from U.S. intelligence. Tags:inhandnetworks, InHand Networks - Global Leader in Industrial IoT, Global Leader in Industrial IoTn>, android-computer, iot |