In his loud shirt, covered in green leaves and plants, the University of Manchester's professor of Zoology, Matthew Cobb, was dressed appropriately for this evening's talk. Hosted at the Royal Institution, Professor Cobb gave his 2021 JBS Haldane Lecture upon receipt of his award of the same name. Following the theme of his recent podcast series, Genetic Dreams, Genetic Nightmares (see BioNews 1115), and his upcoming book, Professor Cobb spoke on the social history of genetic engineering, touching upon the greatest and worst eventualities and possibilities.
Although the focus of his talk encompassed the past 50 years of science, Professor Cobb initially explained that humans have been altering genomes for thousands of years; first, as predators, then as agriculturists, and more recently using microbes to make bread, beer, and wine. This set the tone for an understandable talk for those of us who are not geneticists, I felt my engineer boyfriend relaxing in his seat next to mine.
Professor Cobb then introduced us to the origins of genetic engineering as we know it today, in Cold Spring Harbour, 1971. Professor Robert Pollack, a postdoc at the time, was concerned to hear a student detailing her endeavours to insert a cancer-causing virus into E. coli, a bacterium found in the human gut. Her supervisor, Professor Paul Berg at Stanford University, received an anxious call from then Dr Pollack, imploring him not to pursue these experiments due to the potential risk of cancer pandemics.
These events set off a chain reaction that resulted in a moratorium on recombinant DNA – which is the combination of the genetic material of one organism with another. This led to the seminal Asilomar conference of 1975, where scientists from across the globe met to discuss how genetic engineering could be continued safely. While I had learned most of this from his podcast series, it was engaging to see photographs of this event, and put faces to the names I'd learnt so much about.
Professor Cobb explained how rare it was for scientists to regulate their work like this, comparing their actions to those of the physicists who developed the atomic bomb and continued with their work despite knowing the potential dangers. However, he also noted that there were several crucial topics that were not discussed at Asilomar, including gene therapy, the development of bioweapons, and the environmental consequences of genetic engineering.
After this introduction, Professor Cobb brought in the dreams and nightmares of the genetic age. The two great dreams, as he put it, were improving agriculture, and curing genetic diseases.
The core of the agricultural dream is to improve yield and efficiency. We learned that crop yield could be improved by generating recombinant plants with a natural insecticide, from the DNA of bacteria found in the soil, Bacillus thuringiensis. This was a major breakthrough, reducing insecticide use by approximately 775 million kilos since its development in 1983.
Despite the huge uptake by farmers, particularly in the USA, and the fact that these plants are completely safe to eat, the public still have reservations about eating genetically modified (GM) crops today. This was impressed upon us with images of Greenpeace protestors stomping on GM kale fields in 1999, and newspaper articles referring to 'Frankenstein food.' Professor Cobb suggested that this is a social and cultural issue that boils down to general mistrust of one's own government.
We were then introduced to the second dream: curing genetic diseases. This is known as gene therapy, and has been evolving since 1970. This portion of the talk was more genetics focused, we were demonstrated the evolution of gene therapy from vectors, viruses, and zinc finger enzymes, until we eventually reached CRISPR.
CRISPR, an approach used to edit DNA, is much simpler and more efficient than previous methods. Though a remarkable technique to use in the lab, protocols have not been optimised enough for clinical use yet. However, impressive work is underway to cure genetic diseases such as sickle cell disease, that Professor Cobb has high hopes for.
After presenting us with the good news, Professor Cobb proceeded to tell us the bad. His genetic nightmares included the topics that were not discussed at Asilomar: the development of bioweapons and altering the environment.
A detail that Professor Cobb had omitted previously was that scientific delegates of the USSR attended the Asilomar conference; members of which had great interest in use of recombinant DNA in the development of bioweapons. This was kept under wraps until in 1979 there was a leak of spores of Bacillus anthracis – the anthrax-causing bacteria – at a Soviet military research facility, killing at least 66 people.
Professor Cobb explained that there have been similar interests in the production of bioweapons since this event; Al-Qaeda expressed interest in the destructive 1918 flu virus after its reconstruction in 1996. Moreover, in the USA there was a massive expansion of pathogen research following 9/11.
Although this was terrifying to hear, especially in the wake of the many wars currently being fought globally, Professor Cobb finds the effects of genetic engineering on the environment more frightening. Specifically, Professor Cobb is worried about gene drives. In essence, these drastically increase the probability that a particular set of genes will be inherited by the next generation of that species.
Research into gene drives is predominantly concentrated in disease-causing mosquitos, such as those that carry malaria, dengue fever, and the Zika virus. The basis of this research is to introduce a gene into these mosquitos that renders them sterile, effectively wiping out the population. Although some protocols are extremely efficient in lab settings, many scientists are concerned about introducing these into the wild.
Around 600,000 people die of malaria each year, most of whom children. Therefore, on the one hand it feels unethical to not introduce potentially life-saving gene drives into the environment. However, the consequences of gene drives are impossibly difficult to predict. For example, they could even harm human health further, by causing the malaria parasite to be carried by another host or become more virulent.
This conclusion of the talk sparked many intriguing questions from the audience, resulting in debates regarding the ethics of gene drives and the importance of public engagement in this sphere. This part of the evening was especially interesting and brought something that the podcast series lacked. Professor Cobb is a spectacular public speaker, he breaks down complicated topics into understandable segments and keeps you engaged. I felt that I had learnt even more than he had taught me previously, even if I was left with more questions than answers again.
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