I found this really good article posted by the AAMC in December 2021. It gives a nice summary of the current research/clinical trials going on with CRISPR as well as ethical considerations. In particular, it was nice to see that the issue of equally distributing technology is starting to be discussed and addressed:
One of the most remarkable things about CRISPR technology is how rapidly it has developed. But as exciting as this is for the advancement of science and medicine, experts in fields ranging from research to bioethics, including Doudna, have cautioned that the advancement should not outpace the tackling of ethical complications that arise.
Among these is determining who will have access to advanced gene therapies.
“We have to really grapple with equity and accessibility,” Doudna said at the AAMC annual meeting. “We have to be cognizant of how to be sure that everyone who can benefit from this technology has access to it.”
This is an issue that Eric Kmiec, PhD, had on the top of his mind in 2015, when he became the founding director of the Gene Editing Institute at ChristianaCare in Newark, Delaware, the only institute of its kind that is based in a community health system.
“All due respect to major medical centers — they do amazing work — but somehow the community cancer center always felt to me to be on the ground in cancer,” Kmiec says. “We ought to think about how those technologies are going to affect all people.”
The Gene Editing Institute has what Kmiec calls a “bench to bedside paradigm.” He and his researchers have offices in the same building where the oncologists are seeing patients. They attend grand rounds and have an open-door policy with the physicians. A surgical oncologist regularly attends lab meetings where research is discussed.
“Interacting with the clinicians almost daily taught me a lot about how challenging this damn thing [treating cancer] is,” Kmiec says. “A lot of really bright people have worked on cancer therapy for years … we have to sculpt our approach on what the clinicians are telling us … usually [researchers] come in and tell clinicians how to use tech. We did the opposite.”
Great post, Maria. This is a really cool read. I like how the basis of the work is centered around teamwork and how to better serve one another in the same profession rather than working at odds with those right down the hallway. I also like that this issue is being dissected in a way that everyone benefits and it is to the best interest of ALL patients rather than those with great wealth.
ReplyDeleteI thought this was an important quote from the full article: "...how much potential it (CRISPR) has to drastically change our lives,” Keeler says. “It is going to have profound ramifications in their adulthood and in the lives of their children. I’m not sure how much of what is happening has made its way to outside of academia.”
ReplyDeleteI liken CRISPR to the invention of the atomic bomb. It brought a close to WWII, but at what cost? The mature technology of nuclear weapons has been and is now in the hands of some ethically challenged and seemingly at times insane leaders not to mention the young military people who sit at the controls of missiles that assure us of mutual and total destruction.
In other words, one toe over the line with nukes or CRISPR could be the end of us all. Meanwhile both technologies, now and in the future, have the potential to offer tremendous benefits to humankind. Still, I don't get how some of my fellow humans think and act sometimes. Do they really think that it does not matter which button they decide to push, that there are no ethical issues involved in "just following orders or doing my job"?
This is awesome Maria, thanks for sharing! It's always interesting looking at the current research ongoing with these new technologies. Grappling with accessibility is something I brought up during my midterm presentation. It seems unlikely that our present healthcare system is in a position to allow accessibility to all. Of course this will bring with it an immense amount of discrimination. I wonder how this issue will be tackled in the long run.
ReplyDeleteAs I read I was also reminded of Kirolos' presentation. They are definitely on a slippery slope.
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