Communities Raise Their Voices on Genetic Engineering
        
            By Amy Dockser Marcus, 
                The Wall Street Journal
             | 07. 27. 2018
        
                    
                                    
                    
                                                                                                                                    
                                                                            
                              
    
  
  
    
  
          
  
      
    
            In recent years, scientists have begun using the gene editing tool Crispr to experiment in the laboratory with altering embryos and changing the DNA of animals. But the consequences of using the technology outside the lab are hard to predict—and potentially enormous. As a result, a world-wide debate is under way about how much say ordinary citizens should have over the use of Crispr in their communities.
Earlier this month, Richard Johnson, a biologist who runs the Martha’s Vineyard Tick-Borne Illness Reduction Initiative, attended a discussion of Mice Against Ticks, an ambitious project working on using the Crispr gene editing tool to create mice resistant to the bacteria that causes Lyme disease. Someday, the genetically engineered mice might be released on Martha’s Vineyard and neighboring island Nantucket, where they could breed with the local mice and pass on the immunity to their offspring. Ticks that feed on the mice would not become infected, so they would not transmit the pathogen to humans, lowering the incidence of the disease.
Mr. Johnson believes that the scientists can find a way to make...
 
 
       
 
  
 
    
    
  
   
                        
                                                                                
                 
                                                    
                            
                                  
    
  
  
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            GeneWatch UK has prepared a briefing on the genetic modification of nature for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Congress in October 2025
The upcoming Congress claims to be “where the world comes together to set priorities and drive conservation and sustainable development action.” A major concern for those on the outside is that the Congress may advance plans to develop and encourage the use of synthetic biology in nature conservation. This could at first glance sound like...
 
       
 
 
  
      
    
    
                
                        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
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            Do you wonder where your meat comes from? Maybe it is organic, wild harvested, or farmed.
Or perhaps it was designed in a lab.
Faster-growing fish, heat-tolerant cows and disease-resistant pigs are among a new class of animals that are...