Gene editing

Development of the gene engineering techniques has raised worries that they will be used for construction of organism endangering humans and environment. In 1975 at the Asilomar conference, geneticists from many countries decided that genetic engineering brings more benefits than threats. In last years a new CRISPR-Cas technique emerged . It allows to make the precise changes in genomes, e.g. to inactivate particular genes or to replace mutated genes by their wild-type alleles. Inactivation in mice of genes corresponding to those whose mutations cause the genetic diseases in man allows to get model organisms for studying the etiology of given disease and for working out the methods of its curing. This technique can be applied for repairing genes whose mutations result in metabolic diseases and cancer. Some voices were raised that the technique can be potentially used for the "improvement" of man, what would create many ethical and social problems. Geneticists, ethicists and lawyers gathered in 2015 at the Washington conference, discussed these problems and proposed rules for their solving.