A Chinese research team has made controversial history by injecting a living human for the first time ever using the new CRISPR genome-editing technology.

The research team led by Dr. Lu You, an oncologist at Sichuan University, used modified immune cells to treat a patient suffering from an aggressive form of lung cancer. Researchers claim to have modified the cells using CRISPR’s technology to make them more resilient to detrimental cancer cells.

To combat the metastatic lung cancer, immune cells were extracted from the patient’s blood, and the problematic gene, a PD-1 protein that stops immune response, was disabled using the gene-editing technology. The modified cells were then cultured to create a large batch, and injected back into the patient. Lu’s team believes that the edited cells will attack and defeat the cancer.

University of Pennsylvania immunotherapy professor Carl June told Nature News, “I think this is going to trigger ‘Sputnik 2.0’, a biomedical duel on progress between China and the United States, which is important since competition usually improves the end product.”

Back in 2015, Beijing scientists used CRISPR to modify genes in a human embryo, and the implications were clear. The technology can be used to make “designer babies” by modifying human beings before they are born.

Proponents of the technology sing its praises…claiming CRISPR can eradicate viruses, cure diseases, and even be used to further manipulate an already questionable food supply by engineering crops to tolerate extreme environments and weather patterns.

But if CRISPR has the potential to cure diseases, what’s to say these same diseases couldn’t be weaponized? What if the technology is used by deranged governments to control food supplies? What if a virus like ebola is manipulated and unleashed on the population?

Let’s face it. The technology is relatively inexpensive and there is already an overwhelming consensus that CRISPR will usher in an age of cheap and easy genetic manipulation.

Any garage scientist with three thousand dollars is going to be able to obtain the technology and the possibilities are frightening. Perhaps one of the countless victims of a senseless drone bomb will acquire the gene-editing tool and weaponize measles in retaliation. Maybe a research team gets lazy and greedy and, in their haste, unleashes a bacteria that mutates and wipes out the food supply. (Remember the time that almost happened?)

While aspects of a technology may appear promising, serious and potentially fatal consequences may be lurking. Stephen Hawking recently said genetically modified diseases will lead to the demise of mankind. Do you think he’s right?

Article Source: Nature.com