◆이코노미스트가 글로벌 차세대 경제 리더, 청소년 기자단 영 저널리스트와 함께합니다. 영 저널리스트 기자단은 프리미엄 경제지 이코노미스트, 논술 전문 기관 Ni 에듀케이션과 함께 주요 시사 이슈를 팔로우업하고 직접 기획, 취재, 기사 작성 활동을 하며 사회적 문제를 고심하고 해결 방안을 제시하는 과정을 경험하게 됩니다. 이번 기사는 영 저널리스트 기자단이 현 사회현상에 대해 학생들 시선에서 ‘왜’라는 질문을 갖고 직접 취재해 작성한 기획기사입니다. 영 저널리스트 기자단의 기획기사는 영문과 국문, 두 형태로 게재합니다. 

[Young Journalist Sophia Lee] Imagine you could cure a terminal disease by just cutting a sequence of DNA. As science and technology are significantly developing these days, there are new medical technologies that have been created that enable the treatment of incurable diseases. One of the most prominent technologies is gene editing technology. 

The Gene Editing Technology That Cured Rare Disease: ‘CRISPR’

The most widely used gene editing technology is CRISPR(Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats). It grabbed attention as American researchers saved the life of a baby who was born with a rare inherited disease. CRISPR technology even got the Nobel Prize as a ‘technology of genetic scissors’ that can cut out the problematic gene. 

CRISPR is a technology that detects the desired part of the gene and cuts, fixes, and changes it. Guide RNA (Ribonucleic acid) plays an important role by indicating where the technology should act. When Guide RNA matches with a certain DNA, Cas9(CRISPR Associated protein 9) cuts it. When the DNA is cut, the cells repair the damaged DNA. There are two ways to repair the DNA. 

Once the cut has been made, the cell uses two ways to recover. One way is called non-homologous end joining, which trims both ends of the gene and rejoins them. In the process, small sequences can be inserted or lost, so the DNA might lose its function. The other way is called homology directed repair, which adds desired sequence of DNA to replace the cut DNA. However, this is not suitable for gene editing because it doesn’t work for the cells that do not split and has low efficiency of editing. 

The process of DNA repair allows the gene to be eliminated, changed, or added so that a certain role of the gene can go obsolete or a new role can be applied. This can change or eliminate a problematic gene, so it is highlighted for the potential of it to suggest a new branch in inherited disease curation, and cancer treatment research. 

The first case of real usage of CRISPR was treating severe CPS deficiency of a 10-month-old infant called KJ. Severe CPS deficiency is a disease that can damage various important organs due to accumulated Ammonia. It can be cured by liver transplantation, but KJ was born with this illness, he got the gene edited for faster treatment. After 6 months of research, the medical staff came up with base editing, which is based on CRISPR and edits only the base sequence of the DNA. KJ received the treatment 3 times over February, March, and April. He remained healthy after the treatment but he needs long-term monitoring. More observations and research are needed for commercialization of gene editing but in the case of KJ, we discovered that CRISPR can successfully cure crucial diseases. 

How Should We Deal With Ethical Problems

Gene editing can enable restoring of genetic diversity of endangered animals, and developing new efficient treatments for various diseases such as cancer and genetic diseases. However, it also brings large and drastic change to nature and humanity, so many ethical problems can follow. 

To maximize the effect of gene editing for treating diseasesgenes would need to be edited at the embryonic stage. The problem is that we cannot ignore the possibility of errors in the process of editing the gene and recovering the cut gene. Even more, if the gene is problematic, the gene will pass on to the next generation, the problems caused by gene editing are irreversible. In the situation that it is not able to prove the safety, experts say it is immoral to edit the gene of embryos even with the prospective parents. 

Even if it is safe to edit the gene of embryos, it will cause even severe social problems. The rich will be able to choose the best gene of them and give it to their offspring, so the offspring can have the best appearance and intelligence possible. However, most of the people, who are financially not enough to afford the technology, will not even get the chance to choose the technology or not. Therefore, a specific group of people will overwhelm the others as they are born, and that will overturn the common belief that humans are born equally. 

The Need for Precise and Proper Regulation and Agreements

Clear regulation and international agreement are needed to use gene editing technology safely and ideally. International conferences with scientists, ethicists, and other experts would be strongly helpful for the most executable, sustainable, and ideal guidelines. It is not simple to make the absolute rule that everyone agrees and sustain it. Nevertheless, ethics are the social norm that keeps human being true human, so it is important to apply them to science in order to keep the peace and handle the technologies in the fast-developing modern era. 

It is obvious that gene editing technology will bring humanity massive benefits. We just need countermeasures for the ethical conflicts it can cause and for the countermeasures, we need choice and focus to give up on the parts that are unethical and difficult to execute. I am looking forward to the great development in the medical system that correct usage of gene editing technology will bring.

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