Included in Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2017 is Harvard biologist George Church, a scientist looking to change the world through genetics. Church believes in a future where the DNA of humans and other organisms is manipulated to benefit society, whether to conquer diseases, create new biofuels, or even restore extinct species. He and his team of around 90 graduate students, postdocs, visiting scientists, and staff at Harvard University carry out cutting-edge experimentation with the building blocks of cells and genes to accomplish tasks that he believes will make the future better for all.
This kind of ambition stirs inevitable excitement, but also controversy, in the scientific community. In 1984, Church developed the first direct DNA-sequencing method, resulting in the first of such genetic strings to be coded. Using this technology, he helped initiate the Human Genome Project, which successfully sequenced an entire human genome in 2003. Taking a next step, Church launched the Personal Genome Project in 2005 with the goal of sequencing and sharing medical details and DNA of 100,000 volunteers. This long-term study aims to create an open-source database for researchers to identify correlations between genetics and other physical traits. Church isn’t concerned about privacy issues with this kind of opportunity. In fact, Church believes that everyone should have their DNA sequenced and shared. If people knew the diseases or medical conditions to which they were genetically susceptible, they could adjust their behavior accordingly.
That knowledge also paves the way for researchers to develop new cures. This field of Church’s work looks to synthetic biology for ways to edit an individual’s DNA. By altering or reprogramming microbes and other organisms and extracting their DNA, new and improved genes can be inserted into a person’s stem cells. Sickle-cell anemia, cystic fibrosis, and even AIDS can meet their end with gene-editing technology. In 2014, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania modified a gene in the immune systems of twelve HIV-positive patients. After treatment, half of them were temporarily taken off HIV-related medications. Of those, four showed a reduction of HIV in their bodies, with undetectable levels in one.
Similar techniques could be used to prevent infectious diseases. CRISPR, a revolutionary genome-editing tool Church helped develop, is being used by Church and others to transform the genetics of living things with precision and efficiency, essentially turbocharging the evolution process. When this "gene drive" is applied to mosquitoes, for example, scientists can eliminate malaria carried by them. Church has also used CRISPR to develop genetically modified pigs to grow organs for human transplants, and to experiment with creating eco-friendly biofuels and materials from altered microbes.
If that’s not enough, Church believes that we can take all this a step further and accomplish tasks such as resurrecting extinct species. He writes in Scientific American that if woolly mammoths were synthesized and reintroduced to Siberia and northern Canada, they could lessen the effects of climate change in the tundra. The mammoths, in fact, are something of an ideal candidate for de-extinction efforts because of their close relationship with the Asian elephant. By starting with an elephant genome and replacing its genes with key mammoth genes, such as those for woolly hair, it’s entirely possible to transform elephant DNA into mammoth DNA. If these synthesized versions of the extinct mammoths were introduced to the tundra, they could refill their missing ecological function. Although mammoth resurrection is in its infancy, de-extinction is an exciting concept. Church even sees opportunity with Neanderthal DNA. What could humanity gain by borrowing traits from the Neanderthal genome? What could humanity gain by having Neanderthals living alongside us? We know they had a large brain size. Maybe having Neanderthals coexist with us could introduce new ways of thinking, plus increase evolutionary diversity, Church postulates.
Although these futuristic notions are not yet commonplace, Church’s work certainly isn’t just talk. Everything mentioned above has been experimented with in his lab. He has co-founded countless companies and has 60 patents in his name. His entrepreneurial objectives extend to cheap handheld sequencers, age-reversing gene therapies, cancer-removing technologies, and much more. But are all in favor? The prospect of a future that Church envisions can make other people quite uneasy. Of course, there are also some who accuse him of ͞playing God,͟ or doing things we aren’t qualified to do. Church responds emphatically that it is not ͞playing God.͟It’s engineering, something that humans are meant to do. It’s what distinguishes us from other living things. ͞A lot of people can’t be bothered with innovation,͟ he admits. ͞It’s a nuisance, in certain ways. It usually brings a lot of anxiety and other problems—the kinds of things that prevent the average person from setting aside the time and taking the risks.͟ But in Church’s lab, there’s no alternative. It’s the only way forward.
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