What is CRISPR and why is it controversial?

什么是CRISPR ?

它为什么有争议?

Two women have won the Nobel prize in chemistry for the development of a revolutionary gene editing tool that's been described as "rewriting the code of life.

"两位女性因开发出一种革命性的基因编辑工具而获得诺贝尔化学奖，该工具被称为改写生命密码”的工具。

The technique discovered by Emmanuelle Charpentier, the director at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, and Jennifer A.

Doudna, a biochemist at the University of California Berkeley, is known as CRISPR/Cas9.

这项技术是由马克斯·普朗克感染生物学研究所所长艾曼纽·莎彭蒂耶和加州大学伯克利分校的生物化学家詹妮弗·A·杜德纳发现的，被称为CRISPR/Cas9。

What is CRISPR (pronounced "crisper") and why has it been controversial?

什么是CRISPR(发音为crisper”)?

为什么它一直备受争议?

How it works它是如何起作用的DNA is like the instruction manual for life on our planet, and CRISPR/Cas9 can target sites in genetic material.

DNA就像我们星球上生命的指导手册，CRISPR/Cas9可以在遗传物质中靶向定位。

This allows scientists to change it by knocking out a particular gene or inserting new genetic material at a predetermined site in our DNA.

这使得科学家可以通过敲除一个特定的基因或在我们DNA的预定位置插入新的遗传物质来改变它。

Cas9, a type of modified protein, acts like a pair of scissors that can snip parts of DNA strands.

Cas9是一种修饰蛋白，其作用就像一把剪刀，可以剪断部分DNA链。

"Doudna and Charpentier showed that CRISPR works like a pair of scissors that can be targeted to cut specific DNA sequences, said Andrew Holland, an assistant professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

"After cutting, the repair of the DNA code enables it to be altered.

This has allowed scientists to change the DNA code in a targeted way to help understand and treat genetic disease," he told CNN via email.

杜德纳和夏彭蒂耶的研究表明，CRISPR的工作原理就像一把剪刀，可以靶向切断特定的DNA序列，约翰·霍普金斯医学院分子生物学和遗传学系助理教授安德鲁·霍兰德说。

在切割后，DNA密码的修复使它能够被改变。

这使得科学家有针对性的改变DNA密码，以帮助理解和治疗遗传疾病，”他通过电子邮件告诉CNN。

The technology has worked in pretty much every organism that it has been used on, including plants, microbes and humans.

这项技术适用于几乎所有的生物，包括植物、微生物和人类。

"What the system does is that it can recognize (a) certain specific gene in the genome of ourselves and correct mutations, do some copy pasting, do some editing like we edit a text.

The system can edit the genome and change the properties of the genes," Charpentier said in 2016 when she was interviewed by CNN.

这个系统所做的是，它能识别我们基因组中的某个特定基因并纠正突变，做一些复制粘贴，像编辑文本一样进行编辑。

这个系统可以编辑基因组并改变基因的属性，”2016年，当她接受CNN采访时，她说。

How is it used?

它是如何使用的?

It is already having a major impact on biomedical research, clinical medicine and agriculture.

For example, it's been used to grow rice that accumulates lower levels of potentially toxic heavy metals and create livestock with more desirable traits.

它已经对生物医学研究、临床医学和农业产生了重大影响。

例如，它被用来种植水稻，这种水稻积累的潜在有毒重金属含量较低，并培育出具有更理想特征的牲畜。

It was used for the first time in humans in 2016 and a trial is underway in the United States to use the experimental technology to treat a dozen patients with sickle cell disease, a group of inherited blood disorders.

该技术于2016年首次在人类身上使用，美国正在进行一项试验，利用这项实验技术治疗12名镰状细胞病患者，镰状细胞病是一组遗传性血液疾病。

Related technologies may be able to potentially correct up to 89% of genetic defects, scientists have said.

科学家们说，相关技术可能能够纠正高达89%的基因缺陷。

Why has it been controversial?

为什么会有争议?

While it has immense potential to transform our lives, the technology has raised many ethical questions.

尽管这项技术有改变我们生活的巨大潜力，但它也引发了许多伦理问题。

Claes Gustafsson, secretary of the Nobel committee in chemistry and a professor of biochemistry and biophysics at Stockholm University, said that with "every really powerful technology, in life sciences or elsewhere, there's a possibility of misuse.

"诺贝尔化学委员会秘书、斯德哥尔摩大学生物化学和生物物理学教授克莱斯·古斯塔夫松说，在生命科学或其他领域，每一项真正强大的技术都有可能被滥用。

”"Everyone has agreed that it cannot be used for germline engineering.

You can't make heritable changes to human DNA.

That is far too uncertain at this point," added Gustafsson.

"There are specific genetic diseases you can think of curing for the individual but not in a heritable way.

"每个人都同意它不能用于种系工程。

你不能对人类DNA进行遗传性的改变。

在这一点上，这太不确定了，”古斯塔夫松补充道。

有些特定的遗传病你可以考虑为个人治疗，但不是以遗传的方式。

”Scientists have called for a moratorium on human germline editing, while efforts are being made to better regulate use of the technology.

An international commission said in September it was too early for gene-edited human embryos to be used to create a pregnancy.

科学家呼吁暂停人类种系编辑，同时也在努力更好地规范该技术的使用。

一个国际委员会在9月份表示，将基因编辑过的人类胚胎用于受孕还为时过早。

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