You've Heard About Chatbot, but Have You Heard About These Gene Editing Advancements That Will Save Lives?
Genetic engineering is moving to the front lines of treatment. You heard it here first.
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Over the past six months, when reading about new tech or science advances, have you seen more content about artificial intelligence or genetic engineering?
We would bet that out of 100 random readers, no more than a few of you, if any, answered genetic engineering. And if anyone did, they most certainly are a professional in the health care field. However, we believe that medical advances in the genetic engineering area will soon become the first line of treatment for many major human diseases.
What if we told you this was a much larger story with the potential to become the fifth major medical breakthrough for human civilization in the last 200 years? This would be following anesthesia, antisepsis, antibiotics and immunization.
This breakthrough is the genetic engineering of cells to correct the mistakes inherent in our original set of genetic blueprints.
Now, as we all expect in evolution, some genetic mutations will actually make us better suited to live within our environment. However, with those successes come many that don’t, and those are the ones CRISPR and genetic engineering approaches will be geared to correct.
It has only been 10 years since the discovery of our entire genetic code and DNA sequencing to possibly change the code, and we are just starting to touch on the applications. Imagine if every disease where your body should be sending signals to eliminate the cells (mostly called cancers), but it doesn’t. Or where your immune system attacks your own body’s cells when it shouldn’t (mostly called auto-immune disorders). Now genes can be turned on and off to correct these mistakes. And with these corrections, because of many trial and errors with your own system, other factors that may create bigger issues have been identified and corrected.
Well, that’s where we are right now in regards to genetic engineering for many diseases. Clinical trials and new approaches are working their way through our medical systems worldwide to make these the first line of treatment in many areas.
Let’s look at some examples.
The diseases closest to getting approval for genetic engineering treatment, some say within the next 6-12 months, are blood disorders, such as sickle cell. Below is a current update on where that stands. Expect a new problem to occur with all these treatments, which is who will pay for the cost of the treatments and at what expense? But that is not for us to debate here.
The next disease is likely more important to most of us, which is the early detection of cancer. Genetic engineering trials in India are looking at a simple blood test to find those markers years before tumors occur.
If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with a disease you have seen mentioned for clinical trials with genetic engineering approaches, here is the blueprint of where most trials in the United States are occurring.
Finally, here is our choice of a newsletter where you can read about how advancements in artificial intelligence, genetic engineering and drug discoveries are going to lead to new treatments. The author Eric Topol, who works at the Scripps Institute in San Diego, has pivoted the well-renowned newsletter from analyzing coronavirus to looking at these advancements and educating non-medical experts about them. Take a look, we certainly will be writing a lot about what he finds in our future coverage.
These are exciting times, at least in our minds, for health care. And with these exciting times come new problems, both economic (regarding cost and access) and derivatives (resulting in new problems and opportunities). We certainly don’t know where all these innovations will lead, but we think they are worthwhile, knowledgeable and do no harm! Thank you Hippocrates.
Best,
Craig for the Don’t Count Us Out Yet Team