[perlgeek]

The article is pretty light on details, but

> Much like other CRISPR therapies, delivery is a critical challenge, i.e., getting the large genome-cutting enzyme to all the targeted cells efficiently.

makes me think this is in vitro so far. So, years to decades away from being available for actual treatment in humans. Still good news.

[daedrdev]

Basically the issue is often that gene therapies end up in the liver since its the livers job to detoxify, but that may cause a dangerous immune response if the immune system notices it in the liver and attacks the organ, since the person could die from the damage.

[JumpCrisscross]

I’m assuming this has been tried, but why doesn’t nano-encapsulated mRNA (that then makes the CRISPR sequences in cells) or whatever the peptide injectors do solve the problem?

[Metacelsus]

Yeah. With cancer, delivering to 99% of the cells won't cut it, the surviving 1% will quickly grow back.

[amelius]

(removed)

[perlgeek]

You can target an individual by injecting that very individual with something lethal.

If that's not what you want, you'd need something like a virus to spread it. But then you have to ask yourself: what if that virus mutates? The specialization to certain gene markers is an evolutionary disadvantage, so evolution will tend to make it lose that restriction. Ooops.

[im3w1l]

I can think of ways to deal with that. I think the threat is serious enough that I won't post about those ways publicly.

[ACCount37]

Old concern, but it really doesn't work that way. Genetics don't respect human ideas like "nationalities" or "borders" - the targeting you can get by selecting on singular DNA variants is coarse enough to make ICBMs look like precision weapons.

Like many things of this nature, people keep bringing it up because it sounds Very Scary and Very Dystopian - not because it's worth giving an actual fuck about.

[ikrenji]

I mean maybe not right now, but in 100-1000 years a complicated enough "nanobot/virus" could possibly be made to target a single person

[ACCount37]

If it's year 2126, and you have this kind of tech floating around, and you aren't equipping the entire population with artificial immune systems capable of dealing with known and unknown biological threats? You've done something wrong.

[matheusmoreira]

I suppose it could also be used to assassinate specific persons with the precision of DNA matching. Like FOXDIE.