CRISPR’s Promise to Revolutionize Medicine | Juliana Quattrochi | TEDxYouth@Lincoln
[Music] my 12th birthday one the very first things I did after school was go to the pharmacy to pick up medication for my asthma analogies that included three inhalers one for every day one for why I got sick in one rescue inhaler one ball of allergy medicine and the dreaded nasal spray soon you and I won't have to go the pharmacy at all we can stop diseases before they even start previous attempts to alter the human genome have been clumsy imprecise in all out difficult to use but not anymore the future of evolution is one engineered by humans not nature you don't need to be a scientists understand science health decisions should be made with the public in a partnership this issue is not a policymakers issue it's not scientists issue it's not even a patient's issue because this issue is really everyone's issue so let's take a step as a society towards this big scary risk as the international community tiptoes that's towards that future it's more important than ever to understand the possible outcomes of this situation the public needs to be aware of what choice they're making and where that complete I assure you there will be no orange eyes or purple tails in our futures so I think this decision is quite positive and I hope you will too so what is genome editing genome editing is the modification of the genetic material DNA inside your cells when DNA copies itself it's been making changes all the time and usually these don't result in anything too drastic however one one mistake is made in 3.1 billion catastrophe can occur in the germline the portion of DNA passed from parent to child if there's a mistake in that particular sequence we can cause sickle-cell anemia in athelia or even cystic fibrosis both new and innovative technology we won't have to face these diseases any longer so before we get to what genome editing is let's explore the basics of DNA DNA is made up of two sets of base pairs adenine pairs with thymine you can remember as a is and teens apples with trees guanine pairs the sizing chisme sees cars with garages all these base pairs connect together into larvae that then twists into double helix DNA resides in the nucleus the brain of the cell so how does genome editing work genome editing works with this new and promising tool called CRISPR which stands for quite a mouthful clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic who repeats what that really means is that CRISPR acts similarly to a virus to take control of the cell's production of DNA once that cell produces more DNA CRISPR will go into the sequence cut through the double helix and remove the unnecessary DNA that's causing the mutation from here the cell connects the two ends back together or adds an additional DNA to fix the mutation thus we've cured this disease as our scientists have explored this big possibility we've come up with some very pressing questions once the most prominent being what would this mean for us today as for now the healthcare debate wouldn't even exist with this type of technology those most vulnerable to losing their health care due to chronic illness wouldn't have to worry anymore while the sleepless night so apparent concern for the health of their child could be averted beyond portent hereditary disease we can find and remove risk factors for things like cancer parts of the population have a gene that allows them to be be resistant we could then spread this trait to everyone scientists before us have worked hard to map the genome in the human genome project but before that was just a bunch of A's and T's and G's and seeds that meant nothing but now along a similar vein to the scientist before us it's time to start putting data with meaning now citizens will be able to soon live more productive happier healthier lives doing what they love genome editing has been finding big solutions to problems we've been facing for millennia however genome editing also brings unique problems that demand innovative solutions manufacturers administrators and modders of genome editing will have massive powers over our lives and futures this can easily lead to discrimination where certain demographics lack access to genome editing what happens when only the rich can afford you know editing what happens when it's in the hands of politicians to me making choices about your health what happens if we do nothing at all the risks of unequal access to genome editing are just as dangerous as the risks of orange eyes and purple tails there's enormous resources required to be able to finesse the entire human society into one that's been genome edited so we have to ask this question who pays for all this should it be democratic governments or private corporations the government would be able if it so chooses to subsidize genome editing then everyone would have the choice maybe one day in the future to decide whether they want their DNA and or not when scientific projects have been well funded we've reached the moon the Stars and into the sea now it is time to reach inside ourselves health is a universal human right that isn't guaranteed and can be easily taken advantage of how far would you go to gain the resources necessary to change your own fate how far would you go to save the life of a loved one soon we won't have to ask these questions any longer in the future it will be our decision as a whole not just scientists under when we undertake the editing of the human genome this is a choice for all of us to be making together I want you to sit down the table and talk to figure out exactly what do you see in our future because this is a real possibility how far is too far what qualifies to be edited because of this we really need to know where we stand and we need to have this conversation not just with ourselves not with our friends but with everyone because scientists can't just make these decisions then they're going to affect the entire population let's make an investment in our future perhaps a future door of mine won't have to face the same slow blindness through my great grandmother did our generation will go out this problem this just as hard as the last one went at it but with our own twist and DNA does not will not define us what will is our actions thank you [Music] you