There’s your genome and then there’s your epigenome – external factors that can control which of your genes are turned on or off. Epigenetic influences, from the food you eat to the pollution you inhale, bring alien molecules into your body that stick to your DNA, not changing its structure but changing how it works in ways that not only can spark disease but also can be passed from generation to generation.
Researchers at the University of California at San Francisco have tinkered with the Nobel-winning gene-editing technology called CRISPR and come up with a way to control the epigenetic compounds that grab onto your genes and flip their switches.
The researchers created a tool they call “CRISPRoff,” which allows them to turn off almost any gene in your genome without making any changes to your genes themselves.
In tests with insects, they found that a gene they turned off stayed silent down through hundreds of generations and remained silenced until they turned it back on with their other tool, “CRISPRon.”
The project could create a one-and-done treatment for diseases that spring from a single damaged gene, such as the immune system disorder called Job’s syndrome and some kinds of cancer.
The new tools also offer a way for genetic defects to no longer be passed from parent to child.
TRENDPOST: With the human genome mapped, scientists gradually are identifying the role and function of individual genes and what happens when they malfunction in particular ways.
Coupled with that knowledge, the power to deliberately turn specific genes on and off is a breakthrough with vast implications, including being able to end gene-based illnesses and birth defects.
But it also points to perhaps someday finding a way to turn on or off genes for eye color or other traits in fetuses, fulfilling humanity’s wish for, and misgivings about, “designer babies.”
