Thanks for the write-up, I recall a conversation introducing me to all these ideas in Berkeley last year and it’s going to be very handy having a resource to point people at (and so I don’t misremember details about things like the Yamanaka factors!).
Am I reading the current plan correctly such that the path is something like: Get funding → Continue R+D through primate trials → Create an entity in a science-friendly, non-US state for human trials → first rounds of Superbabies? That scenario seems like it would require a bunch of medical tourism, which I imagine is probably not off the table for people with the resources and mindset willing to participate in this.
Yes, that’s more or less the plan. I think it’s pretty much inevitable that the United States will fully legalize germline gene editing at some point. It’s going to be pretty embarassing if rich American parents are flying abroad to have healthier children.
You can already see the tide starting to turn on this. Last Month Nature actually published an article about germline gene editing. That would NEVER have happened even just a few years ago.
When you go to CRISPR conferences on gene editing, many of the scientists will tell you in private that germline gene editing makes sense. But if you ask them to go on the record as supporting it publicly, they will of course refuse.
At some point there’s going to be a preference cascade. People are going to start wondering why the US government is blocking technology to its future citizens healthier, happier, and smarter.
Thanks for the write-up, I recall a conversation introducing me to all these ideas in Berkeley last year and it’s going to be very handy having a resource to point people at (and so I don’t misremember details about things like the Yamanaka factors!).
Am I reading the current plan correctly such that the path is something like:
Get funding → Continue R+D through primate trials → Create an entity in a science-friendly, non-US state for human trials → first rounds of Superbabies? That scenario seems like it would require a bunch of medical tourism, which I imagine is probably not off the table for people with the resources and mindset willing to participate in this.
Yes, that’s more or less the plan. I think it’s pretty much inevitable that the United States will fully legalize germline gene editing at some point. It’s going to be pretty embarassing if rich American parents are flying abroad to have healthier children.
You can already see the tide starting to turn on this. Last Month Nature actually published an article about germline gene editing. That would NEVER have happened even just a few years ago.
When you go to CRISPR conferences on gene editing, many of the scientists will tell you in private that germline gene editing makes sense. But if you ask them to go on the record as supporting it publicly, they will of course refuse.
At some point there’s going to be a preference cascade. People are going to start wondering why the US government is blocking technology to its future citizens healthier, happier, and smarter.