But revamping the way we look at products created by genetic engineering and CRISPR is more difficult than you might think.
In April 2016, an unlikely thing made headlines: the common white button mushroom.
“Gene-Edited CRISPR Mushroom Escapes US Regulation,” wrote Nature.
“What’s a GMO? Apparently Not These Magic Mushrooms,” wrote Grist.
And from MIT Technology Review: “Who Approved the Genetically Engineered Foods Coming to Your Plate? No One.”
The white button mushroom in question looked like any other in the grocery store, with one imperceptible difference: It was missing a gene that codes for an enzyme called PPO, or polyphenol oxidase, which makes mushrooms turn brown when they’re bruised or cut. Scientists at Pennsylvania State University essentially turned off this PPO gene—one of six in the mushroom—with a new gene-editing tool called CRISPR, or clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats. CRISPR is a bit like a biological word processor. It zooms to a specific genetic sequence in any living thing—the biotech equivalent of using Ctrl+F. Then, the tool can add, delete, or replace genetic information...
By Harold Brubaker, The Philadelphia Inquirer | 04.04.2024
Aggregated News
Acompany started by University of Pennsylvania scientist Jim Wilson has received FDA approval to test a form of gene editing in infants for the first time in the United States, the company said Thursday.
A Mexican standoff with the United States turned into a Mexican smack-down this month with the release of Mexico’s formal rebuttal to US efforts to overturn limits Mexico has ordered on the use of genetically modified (GM) corn and the...
The U.S. government must move “quickly and decisively” to avert substantial national security risks stemming from artificial intelligence (AI) which could, in the worst case, cause an “extinction-level threat to the human species,” says a report commissioned by the U.S...
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