A World Without Diseases: CRISPR and The Genome Editing Revolution

5

October

2020

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A world without diseases would be music to the ears for every sick and healthy person alive. It seems impossible to achieve but the latest developments in genome editing give us a glimmer of hope. Especially the developments in CRISPR technology show that diseases such as HIV, AIDS and cancer could be prevented in the future.

Scientists have been searching for an easy way to correct changes that occur in the DNA of cancer patients. Over the past few years, different methods of genome editing have been developed. However, no technology was quick, cheap and easy enough to take genome editing to the next phase (NCI, 2020).

The game changed with the introduction of CRISPR. CRISPR technology has the ability to recognize, delete and repair muted DNA (Shwartz, 2018). The technology combines a protein called Cas9 with the engineered CRISPR sequences. This conjunction searches for codes and slices them into a molecular scalpel. The scalpel allows geneticists to remove and replace a target gene with a new sequence (Sciencealert, n.d.). Nowadays, CRISPR is becoming a mainstream methodology which makes its way out of the lab to enter the market with the goal to cure cancer patients (NCI, 2020).

Many scientists argue that most of the disorders in genes could be prevented by scanning embryos for harmful mutations. This would mean that children are born without abnormalities in their genes (Le Page, 2018). However, repairing human embryos to prevent diseases could be seen as controversial. One of the biggest concern is the removal of a wrong gene which could lead to an enormous effect on newborns (Shwartz, 2018). Furthermore, people fear the idea of giving children “superpowers”. On the other hand, scientists discuss that creating designer babies is not something that will happen soon (Shwartz, 2018).

The CRISPR technology offers a lot of benefits, such as the fact that is completely customizable, it is faster than older methods and it is easy to scale up. CRISPR is easy to use and most importantly, significantly cheaper than previous technologies (NCI, 2020).
However, CRISPR is not perfect and also has its limitations, namely it sometimes cuts not targeted DNA. These edits in healthy DNA could be vital and the cells could turn into cancer cells. Moreover, there is still a lot of uncertainty about the effect on the immune systems and how it will react to CRISPR (NCI, 2020).

Despite the limitations and controversies, the CRISPR technology remains a powerful tool for genome editing and the promises that it offers keep scientists focused on the future (Sciencealert, n.d.; Shwartz, 2018). A disease free world would maybe not be a strange idea in the foreseeable future.

Bibliography
Le Page, M. 2018. “Genetic disorders should be the focus of CRISPR gene editing trials”. New Scientist. [Online] Available at https://www.newscientist.com/article/0-genetic-disorders-should-be-the-focus-of-crispr-gene-editing-trials/ [Accessed 5 Oct. 2020].
NCI. 2020. “How CRISPR Is Changing Cancer Research and Treatment”. National Cancer Institute. [Online] Available at https://www.cancer.gov/news-events/cancer-currents-blog/2020/crispr-cancer-researchtreatment#:~:text=CRISPR%20is%20a%20highly%20precise,changing%20cancer%20research%20and%20treatment.&text=Ever%20since%20scientists%20realized%20that,those%20changes%20by%20manipulating%20DNA [Accessed 5 Oct. 2020].
Sciencealert. N.d. What is CRISPR Gene Editing? [Online] Available at https://www.sciencealert.com/crispr-gene-editing [Accessed 5 Oct. 2020].
Shwartz, M. (2018). “Target, delete, repair”. Stanford Medicine. [Online] Available at https://stanmed.stanford.edu/2018winter/CRISPR-for-gene-editing-is-revolutionary-but-it-comes-with-risks.html [Accessed 5 Oct. 2020].

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A whole new world; Enter the world of 3D printing

21

September

2020

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3D printing

Today, most supply chain processes consist of the same steps, namely the procurement of raw materials and the production of the final product, followed by the transportation and distribution of this product to the customer. However, there is an increasing curiosity about transferring these steps to the consumer through the use of 3D printers (Suberg, 2018).

The origin of 3D printing lies in the development of prototypes. The purpose of this technology was to make creating prototypes and models cheaper and easier for engineers. The automotive industry discovered the potential of this new technology and created more use cases. This was followed by using 3D printers for establishing certain parts of a final product that are difficult to produce. Despite the fact that 3D printing is becoming more popular, it is still hard to tell whether a consumer product consists of 3D printed parts (Suberg, 2018).

Printing our own products at home may seem strange now, but when the 3D printer becomes accessible to the mainstream market it will have an enormous effect on almost every business, and in particular the delivery industry. The market has already developed in a striking way and the price of a 3D printer has dropped to less than €1000, making them more accessible to consumers (Bizibl, n.d.).

3D printing could be a disruptive technology to the general design of the supply chain, by reducing the demand of high volume facilities, construction distribution and low-level assembly lines. In a traditional way, the consumer products are distributed in warehouses after which the products are delivered to the customer. This leads to the risk of having products in stock that are not wanted. 3D printing reduces this risk by eliminating the need of stocking finished products, since these can be printed on demand (Jumaah & Szary, 2018).

As a result of skipping a few steps of the supply chain and delivering a pulled customized product that is locally printed, lead times, assembly lines and time to market are minimalized. This result has an enormous effect on economic savings in logistics and production (Jumaah & Szary, 2018).
Another advantage that the 3D printing technology offers, is the increase in the amount of customized products. Furthermore, 3D printing will increase global purchases, which contributes to the ongoing globalization. Products do not have to be shipped anymore, because they can be printed out (Jumaah & Szary, 2018).

Unfortunately, every gain is balanced by a loss. 3D printing technology is not applicable for mass production, meaning it cannot compete with the current speed of a mass manufacturing process. It also causes some issues regarding intellectual property. If every consumer is able to download blueprints from the internet, producers have to find a way in which they can control their intellectual property. Moreover, problems with regard to liability and security will arise (Bizibl, n.d.).

Although downloading and producing our own products at home seem far away, it is dangerously getting closer. The 3D printing technology is ready to change our world.

References
Suberg, T. 2018. “The Future of Logistcs Tech: Print or Ship?”. Predict, [online] Available at https://medium.com/predict/the-future-of-logistics-tech-print-or-ship-7b1e3fb2fc8e [Accessed 21 Sept. 2020]

Bizibl. N.d. Six Theories About How 3D Printing Will Change Logistics. [online] Available at https://bizibl.com/logistics/download/six-theories-about-how-3d-printing-will-change-logistics [Accessed 21 Sept. 2020].

Jumaah, O. & Szary, P. 2018. A study on 3D Printing and its Effects on the Future of Transportation. [online] Available at https://cait.rutgers.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/cait-utc-nc19-final.pdf [Accessed 21 Sept. 2020].

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