[DIYbio] Re: "DIY Human CRISPR" by Josiah Zayner

Josiah Zayner presented a short workshop at SynBioBeta 2017 on "DIY Human CRISPR".

I'd like to raise awareness about Josiah's rhetoric, so below is a short transcript of his presentation (from about the 20 minute mark):

[20:40] "If you look at Step 3 - which is, uh, you know, I like steps and lists, they are awesome - uhm, there are actually websites out there that have this infrastructure completely built. You can go in, type in the name of a gene. Not even the name, you could type in the name you think a gene should be named, and what it will do is predict the best guide RNAs, the best 20 bases, to use, so that Cas9 enzyme can cut in your genome in this exact place."

"Literally, you don't have to do anything, right? You have to go in, type in the name of a gene, and press enter, and you could modify yourself with CRISPR. Right? That's what this DNA basically is. This DNA, if you think about, took me about 5 minutes to make. Actually, it happened so fast, I had to go back and verify it a couple of times. I didn't think I could create DNA that could modify my own genetics with CRISPR in 5 minutes. Now, if that doesn't blow your mind, I, I really don't know what does. And, the next question comes down to, 'What's holding us back; what's stopping us?' And I dunno, to me, I, I don't really know what's stopping us, you know? I, I think about it a lot, because, I have this really, you know, bad snaggle-tooth, and I think like what happens if I could change that?"

"No but if you think about, people are born with things that they have no decision over. And then everybody else says, 'Oh, no, fuck you, I'm athletic and 6 feet tall and, you know, good looking, and you just, you just, the genetic lottery - you lost. That's the truth. You lost the genetic lottery and you have to suffer through it.' How does it make sense?"

You can watch it in its entirety here:  

I don't have time to transcribe the whole thing; if you want to help you can add to this temporary document: http://piratepad.be/p/SBB17-zayner

I am not taking a position for or against Josiah's wording, just curious what others think.

mac

Mac Cowell / @100ideas / +1.231.313.9062 /  DIYbio.org