World Health Organization new framework on life science

World Health Organization new framework on life science

Subject : International relations

Context: For the first time World Health Organization has come out with a global guidance framework for the responsible use of life sciences.

Aim:

• The new framework addresses decades-long challenges of preventing the accidental and deliberate misuse of biology and other life sciences, as well as how to manage governance to accelerate and spread innovation, while mitigating negative impacts.
• Life sciences are increasingly intersecting with other fields, such as chemistry, artificial intelligence and nanotechnology, which changes the landscape of risks, and could be missed.
• It also outlines the need for anticipatory and responsive governance mechanisms, including foresight approaches, which are participatory and multi-disciplinary ways of exploring trends, emerging changes, systemic impacts and alternative futures.
• To help manage risks, it covers issues such as preventing misinformation and disinformation, as well as managing large health data sets.
• The framework is intended as the go-to starting point for the development and strengthening of bio risk management, which relies on three core pillars: biosafety, laboratory biosecurity and the oversight of dual-use research

The CRISPR technology

The CRISPR is an acronym for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, developed in the year 2012

CRISPR has made gene editing very easy and simple, and at the same time extremely efficient.

The technology works in a simple way — it locates the specific area in the genetic sequence which has been diagnosed to be the cause of the problem, cuts it out, and replaces it with a new and correct sequence that no longer causes the problem.

The technology replicates a natural defence mechanism in some bacteria that use a similar method to protect itself from virus attacks.

Working of CRISPR

• An RNA molecule is programmed to locate the particular problematic sequence on the DNA strand.
• A special protein called Cas9, often described in popular literature as ‘genetic scissor’, is used to break and remove the problematic sequence.
• A DNA strand, when broken, has a natural tendency to repair itself. But the auto-repair mechanism can lead to the re-growth of a problematic sequence.
• Scientists intervene during this auto-repair process by supplying the desired sequence of genetic codes, which replaces the original sequence.
• It is like cutting a portion of a long zipper somewhere in between and replacing that portion with a fresh segment.

Because the entire process is programmable, it has a remarkable efficiency and has already brought almost miraculous results.

Uses of CRISPR

• There are a whole lot of diseases and disorders, including some forms of cancer, that are caused by an undesired genetic mutation. These include common blood disorders like sickle cell anaemia, eye diseases including colour blindness, several types of cancer, diabetes, HIV, and liver and heart diseases. Many of these are hereditary as well. This technology opens up the possibility of finding a permanent cure to many of these diseases
• Genes of plants can be edited to make them withstand pests, or improve their tolerance to drought or temperature.
• This is also true for the deformities arising out of abnormalities in gene sequences, like stunted or slow growth, speech disorders, or inability to stand or walk.

Ethical concerns

In November 2018, a Chinese researcher in Shenzen created an international sensation with his claim that he had altered the genes of a human embryo that eventually resulted in the birth of twin baby girls.

This was the first documented case of a ‘designer babies’ being produced using the new gene-editing tools like CRISPR.

What made matters worse was that the gene-editing was probably done without any regulatory permission or oversight.