• medgremlin@midwest.social
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      9 months ago

      As a widely available, cost-effective treatment? Almost certainly not. We have yet to successfully genetically modify a human being and there’s a metric ton of legal and ethical red tape to deal with before we can even try.

        • medgremlin@midwest.social
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          9 months ago

          Not necessarily, but the advancement of the technology and refinement of the technique are not progressing very quickly and since it’s so far away from human application, there’s not a lot of money/investment in it.

            • medgremlin@midwest.social
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              9 months ago

              Gene therapy is not the same thing as CRISPR. CRISPR is modifying the genome before the organism makes it past 1 cell.

                • medgremlin@midwest.social
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                  9 months ago

                  While that gene therapy does exist, it is not the same as what is being done here. The offspring of these mosquitos will have this same modified gene. The offspring of the recipients of the Sickle Cell gene therapy will not have the modified gene. We have the ability to alter a single human for their lifespan, but we do not have the ability to alter a human in such a way that their offspring will carry the same modification.