A Busy Tuesday

As I wrote about in my last post, Tuesday was the first thesis committee meeting but after the meeting, there was much more excitement to be had.

Every year, Albany Med gives out a prize of 500,000 dollars (The Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research - one of the most distinguished prizes in medicine in the United States) to a scientist, or a group of scientists who have altered the course of medical research. This year, the prize was given to 5 doctors who played primary roles in developing the CRISPR Cas-9 protein technology - a gene editing technology that has allowed scientists to easily and efficiently edit genes by splicing out and replacing or altering sections of DNA in the cells of any organism, including humans (most current research uses isolated human cells in labs and animal models only).

Although the distinguished doctors were presented with the prize on Wednesday evening, Albany Med hosted a panel discussion with all five on Tuesday evening and thankfully, I was able to make it into the lecture hall just before they officially started. Although I had to sit on the stairs because of how packed the place was, I can assure you that it was totally worth it. Every single second of that discussion was brilliant and I was, needless to say, in awe.

Some things that I found really interesting were the types of topics that were brought up when the panel opened the floor for questions from the audience. A recurring theme, much to my surprise, wasn't a concern about designer babies, but an inquiry about the future of agriculture. We might have to ask Shika about the wisdom in this, but the doctors kept mentioning that gene editing in crops could possibly mean a solution to food shortages and and an end to world hunger. Man, talk about shooting for the stars.

Anyway, while designer babies and various human implications were definitely mentioned more than a few times throughout the discussion, I think the concern over such an alien possibility wasn't as severe as in other settings because there was a mutual understanding that the technology is simply not there yet. Yes, labs have tried their hands at manipulating samples of tissue cells but the presentation of CRISPR cas-9 on a human level is still a ways away. And this time, according to the award recipients, is necessary for them to figure out what ethical considerations must be put in place. Because as pioneers in this new and exciting area of medicine, they are also charged with imagining possible circumstances, questioning to what degree people can be trusted to handle such technology with responsibility and completing their due diligence to the legal and scientific community.

Another thing mentioned by the doctors about the time they have before the technology reaches humans was this quote that really stood out to me; "Science is moving quickly, and we want it to move quickly, but not so that we make mistakes." In a modern world where it seems that almost anything is possible, I think this statement is really important. Whether those mistakes are ones of inaccurate ethical expectations or technological deficiencies/malfunctions, all 5 scientists stood by this statement that moving quickly is good - more knowledge and discoveries are great. But the danger is that if science moves too fast, mistakes will be made and as these advancements rise in complexity, so do the fatality of mistakes. And I think this fact is also true of anything else any of us do. If you're reading something you can't skim the article and expect to come out with complete command of its contents. If we're EMC students, we can't move too fast, allow ourselves to go unchecked and expect no problems in the end.

The thing I liked the most about the discussion panel was that even if you had no knowledge of how CRISPR works, you could have understood most of what was being said. Obviously, there were some technicalities that a few people asked for clarification on, but the discussion itself was so relevant and present and involving that I'm sure everyone could find some hold to stake an interest in or a claim on. I really appreciated and admired that because I've always struggled with this skill, now more than ever, how to make things specific yet general enough so that people coming from all walks of life could find the information I am communicating relevant. But I'm sure as long as I keep doing everything in my power to relate to a wider audience, something will work.

To watch the full discussion, click here. If you have some time, give it a try. Trust me, these giants of DNA research will certainly not disappoint.