SCIENCE - Genetic Lyme Uptick

"Could genetically engineered mice reduce Lyme disease?" PBS NewsHour 9/12/2017

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Lyme disease has become part of daily life for residents on the rural Massachusetts islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, where the tick population has exploded.  Now a scientist at MIT is turning to a different culprit -- infected white-footed mice -- in an attempt to engineer a long-term solution to the problem.  Special correspondent Cristina Quinn of WGBH reports.

CODE OF LIFE - Gene Editing

COMMENT:  The question is, is gene editing safe?  Human's are notoriously known to make mistakes, and gene editing has the potential to become dangerous because genes mutate and we may not be aware of what has happened for generations.  If you think GMO foods are a bad idea, this is even worst.

"How CRISPR gene editing puts scientists in the driver's seat of evolution" PBS NewsHour 1/5/2017

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Imagine you could edit a mouse's genes to be resistant to Lyme Disease.  The mouse would breed and evolution would take its course, leading to the extinction of the disease.  That's the vision for scientists developing CRISPR, technology that allows scientists to rewrite the code of life.  William Brangham talks to Michael Specter who wrote about CRISPR for The New Yorker.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM (NewsHour):  CRISPR is a technique that allows scientists to go into the DNA of a plant or an animal or even a human being, and remove or replace a small part of that organism's genetic code.

This technique, which can be used to improve crops, eliminate genetic diseases, or specifically target the viruses and pathogens that have killed billion, could be a revolutionary advancement.

The potential for CRISPR is described in the recent issue of The New Yorker.  The story is called “Rewriting the Code of Life.”

And I'm joined now by its author, New Yorker staff writer Michael Specter.  He joins me from California.

Michael Specter, welcome.

In your story, you profile a young scientist named Kevin Esvelt.  And I want to quote a line from your story.  You say that Esvelt directs the — quote — “sculpting evolution group at MIT, where he and his colleagues are attempting to design molecular tools capable of fundamentally altering the natural world.”

I mean, that's a pretty extraordinary set of ambitions.  What are they trying to do?

MICHAEL SPECTER, The New Yorker:  You know, they're trying to look out the problems we have in health, in crops in a variety of ways, and rewrite DNA, which is the basic code of life, so that it can make us healthier, safer, protect crops, protect trees, protect endangered species.

It's a tremendously energetic and ambitious idea.  And it has — like all wonderfully ambitious ideas, it has great risks, too.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM:  You report on a particular experiment they're running up in Nantucket trying to target Lyme disease.

Can you explain what they're hoping to do there?

MICHAEL SPECTER:  Mostly, people think about Lyme disease in deer.  And there is a relationship.

But the real reservoir for Lyme is the white-footed mouse.  At Kevin Esvelt at MIT said, gee, let's rewrite the DNA of the mouse so that it is resistant to the Lyme tick, so when a Lyme tick bites it, it doesn't matter.

And when you do that, you sort of break this chain of transmission between mice and deer and humans.  And if you did that enough, and if you really rewrote the DNA — mice are not that rapid, but they're relatively rapid at reproducing — and you can quite easily see a way in which you would get rid of that disease.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM:  I mean, as you describe it in this piece, CRISPR is really putting us in the driver's seat for evolution, and not only to control, in some ways, evolution, but to accelerate evolution.

Am I understanding that this just seems to be a tremendously — tremendous potential for this?

MICHAEL SPECTER:  I think the particularly revolutionary thing here is the combination of CRISPR, which is an editing program — it's like editing something on your computer so that you can cut and paste words — combining that with this phenomenon called gene drive.

ENVIRONMENT - Greenhouse Gasses, Courts or EPA?

"Should Courts or EPA Regulate Greenhouse Gases?"
PBS Newshour 4/19/2011

Excerpt from transcript

GWEN IFILL (Newshour): The lawsuit, originally filed in 2004, argues that carbon dioxide-driven global warming has eroded beachfronts, caused stronger storms and wildfires and increased health risks stemming from severe heat waves and smog.

But the case before the court is not a debate over climate change, per se. The companies acknowledge it exists and even their contributing role. They're arguing, instead, that a court-imposed solution that requires a 3 percent reduction in emissions over the next 10 years could hurt businesses that depend on fossil fuels.

BIO-WARS - Genetic Engineering

"Judge prohibits planting of genetically engineered alfalfa" by Paul Elias, Associated Press

In most areas I am pro-science, but when it comes to genetic engineering I have major concerns. They have to do with "do we really know what we are doing?" Consequences could be disastrous. This judge has very pertinent concerns.

A federal judge on Thursday barred the planting of genetically engineered alfalfa nationwide, ruling that the government didn't adequately study the biotechnology crop's potential to mix with organic and conventional varieties.

U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer made permanent a temporary ban he ordered in March on alfalfa with genetic material from bacteria that makes the crop resistant to a popular weed killer.

Breyer said the U.S. Department of Agriculture must conduct a detailed scientific study of the crop's effect on the environment and other alfalfa varieties before deciding whether to approve it.

USDA spokeswoman Rachel Iadicicco said the agency would conduct such a study.