CRISPR
I just finished reading Walter Isaacson’s book, The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing and the Future of the Human Race. Isaacson has a gift for writing books that make complex topics readable, and enjoyable. He focuses on Dr. Jennifer Doudna, a pioneer in using CRISPR technology to splice specific genes, using RNA and what are known as Cas enzymes. She received the 2020 Nobel Prize in Biochemistry, along with one of her collaborators, Dr. Emmanuelle Charpentier.
Isaacson’s book is hagiographic. Dr. Doudna is lionized, as she should be for her discoveries. The book is always upbeat, even when he describes clashes over patents, court cases, and the monetary rewards coming from CRISPR discoveries. Like many non-fiction books, it is a bit repetitive. I cannot resist the urge to say that it could have used some splicing itself (sorry).
The concept of splicing out viral genomes that have been incorporated into an organism’s DNA comes from work on Bacteriophages, which are viruses that attack bacteria. Billions of years of evolution have allowed bacterial RNA to splice out these viruses to ensure their survival. Dr. Doudna showed the mechanism of these splices, and along with many other scientists, used this method on the human genome.
The implications of this work are dramatic. A patient with sickle cell anemia is described as being treated by CRISPR to delete the abnormal gene responsible for the disease. In the future, many types of diseases that are associated with gene abnormalities will likely be cured by this technology.
There has been a lot of controversy regarding the potential use of this genetic manipulation in the germline cells of embryos. This type of genetic rearrangement can potentially result in true designer babies. Isaacson describes shades of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and the movie Gattaca. CRISPR has thus far not been used in germline cells, except for one case of a Chinese scientist who spliced out the CCR5 gene, thought to be responsible for predisposition to HIV infection.
The author talks about Eric Lander, the scientist who was the head of the Human Genome Project in the 1990s and the former head of the Broad Institute at MIT. He is portrayed as a super competitive and not altogether likeable fellow. In 2022, after the publication of this book, Dr. Lander was made to resign his position as top science adviser to President Joe Biden, after multiple reports from his staff about bullying.
Eric Lander made a cameo appearance in my life while I was visiting my friend who was a freshman at Princeton. I was in Eric’s dorm room when he was explaining a math concept to my friend. Mind you, my friend was a math whiz in his own right, and graduated from Princeton with a degree in math. Even then, in the 1970s, Lander was known as a star. He was from a middle class background in Brooklyn, and attended the math and science specialized Stuyvesant High School. He was one of only two students at the time to achieve a perfect score in the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) competition, where a 30% grade was considered respectable. He was very articulate. I remember him holding his own asking questions of Senator Lloyd Bentsen during an event at the school. Bentsen was the Democratic party’s Vice-Presidential candidate in 1988, who famously zinged his Republican opponent Senator Dan Quayle for comparing himself to President Kennedy. Bentsen famously replied: “Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.”
I recommend this book to the general reader. I am part of an informal book club at the Arlington Free Clinic, and I look forward to the next read.
References:
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/02/07/eric-lander-resigns-00006545
https://maa.org/student-programs/amc/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3185609/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gattaca
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senator,_you%27re_no_Jack_Kennedy