Grant Jacobs • Mar 11, 2019 •
Here’s a film trailer of the documentary Human Nature that looks at a future of gene editing[1] – The film is to be released soon in Australia and elsewhere. Here’s their blurb, The biggest tech revolution of the 21st century isn’t digital, it’s biological. A breakthrough called CRISPR gives us unprecedented control over the basic building blocks of … Read More
Grant Jacobs • Dec 03, 2018 •
He Jiankui’s[1] experiment has brought the world’s first deliberately gene-edited babies into the world, twins nicknamed Nana and Lulu. He edited the DNA of their embryos, hoping to make them resistant to infection by HIV. I see a lot of people writing comments like, “Genome-edited babies – what’s the worry? We’re going to start it sometime. We can start here.” … Read More
Guest Author • Nov 30, 2018 •
Peter Mills, Assistant Director of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics I arrived in Hong Kong on Monday lunchtime for the second ‘international summit’ on genome editing amid stories circulating that gene-edited twin girls had been born to a Chinese couple. The editing, it was claimed, had targeted the CCR5 gene, with the aim of introducing a variant that confers immunity to HIV … Read More
Grant Jacobs • Nov 28, 2018 •
Time moves on; this story has too. Readers might like to try my more recent piece, Genome-edited babies – what’s the worry?, which covers the biological aspects of what was done. For those following the news that a Hong Kong-based researcher claims to have brought to term human gene-edited babies: hold the horses. I’ve been trying to put a story on … Read More
Guest Author • Oct 26, 2018 •
Andrea Byrom Predictably, the public debate about the pest control toxin 1080 has ramped up a notch in recent weeks and months. I say predictably, because it is no surprise to anyone involved in conservation that pest control methods – whatever they might be – are controversial. Such controversy is a global phenomenon, often with polarised debates. Why does such … Read More
Grant Jacobs • Aug 27, 2018 •
Food Evolution, the movie, is screening at Queenstown at the end of the month. If you’re in the area, check it out. It’s free: you just have to register at EventBrite. The screening and panel discussion is in the Clancy’s Meeting Room, Level 5, Rydges Lakeland Resort, from 7pm on Fri. 31 August. The film is narrated by well-known science communicator … Read More
Grant Jacobs • Nov 21, 2017 •
What if we could fix a kid’s genetic disease, cure them for their lifetime? What if we make that for all of their children, forever? Or enhance humans to be genetically better? What’s your opinion of gene editing and enhancement? A survey asked what people thought. Participants gave a green light for adult gene therapy. They were cautious … Read More
Grant Jacobs • Aug 03, 2017 •
Widely reported today is the research paper by an USA team who edited a gene that causes sudden heart failure in young adults. I’d like to take a different approach, briefly raising just two things that nagged at me while reading this work. Before I do be clear there are real technical advances reported.* I’m not denying or opposing them. Read More
Grant Jacobs • Jul 30, 2017 •
Gene editing could be a big deal. It offers some great stuff. For a few applications it also raises some interesting ethical questions. We might be able to treat some genetic disorders by convert a “broken” gene associated back to the working version of the gene, potentially providing a one-time, life-long fix for the patient. Gene therapy has a surprisingly … Read More
John Kerr • Feb 20, 2017 •
Pandemics, predators and predicting sea-level rise are just a few of the issues covered in our Sciblogs Horizon Scan special series. We asked experts across the spectrum of New Zealand science to give us their take on the big issues in their field and what might be around the corner. What does the future hold in store for New Zealand … Read More