CRISPR gene editing - safe or unsafe?

There hasn’t been a better time for gene editing. Scientists, with help of CRISPR, a revolutionary DNA-editing tool, are trying to find a cure for most health-related concerns, big and small. Although gene editing has existed for years, it was very expensive and challenging until the cheaper and simpler CRISPR technique was discovered.

So when a study by Columbia University Medical Center was published in May in the journal Nature Methods about this revolutionary CRISPR gene-editing technique causing unwanted and dangerous mutations, the medical community was flummoxed. The paper questioned how effective gene-editing technology is and called for a reassessment of the technique’s safety. What followed could be described as fallout frenzy— stock prices of three public gene-editing companies, Editas Medicine, Intellia Therapeutics, and CRISPR Therapeutics dropped.  

However, doubts were raised by scientists affiliated with these CRISPR companies. This was mainly because the study had a small sample size of three mice. A new paper that was published in July and is available on a preprint server offers a plausible explanation for the controversial results, that is, the unwanted mutations. Two of the three study subjects, the CRISPR-edited mice, happened to be more closely related and thus shared more mutations. Therefore, the paper claimed that the premise of the old study was incorrect.             

The success of CRISPR gene editing can have a significant impact on health care as it seeks to accurately diagnose and find a cure for fatal diseases like cancer, hereditary diseases, and mosquito-borne diseases such as Zika and dengue fever. So for now, the medical profession and scientific community who are understandably excited about the potential CRISPR has can breathe a sigh of relief. 

Sources:

DOI: 10.1101/159707
DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2017.05.044