China's CRISPR twins: Human genetic modification

Calling Aldous Huxley.

Wherein I parse a Technology Review article titled: China’s CRISPR twins might have had their brains inadvertently enhanced.

The brains of two genetically edited girls born in China last year may have been changed in ways that enhance cognition and memory, scientists say.

The twins, called Lulu and Nana, reportedly had their genes modified before birth by a Chinese scientific team using the new editing tool CRISPR. The goal was to make the girls immune to infection by HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

  Technology Review

OK, I have to stop right there. Two things strike me immediately. 1) If they're researching whether they can induce HIV immunity, that means they're going to have to intentionally give at least one of these girls HIV. And, 2) Surely, they've just used that as a ruse to do the genetic tampering: We're doing it for the good of humanity, to stop a terrible disease. Sure. You're doing it because you can, Frankenstein.

Now, new research shows that the same alteration introduced into the girls’ DNA, deletion of a gene called CCR5, not only makes mice smarter but also improves human brain recovery after stroke, and could be linked to greater success in school.

“The answer is likely yes, it did affect their brains,” says Alcino J. Silva, a neurobiologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, whose lab uncovered a major new role for the CCR5 gene in memory and the brain’s ability to form new connections.

I have to stop again, because now I've got myself into Brave New World and Minority Report mode. Maybe the likely answer is the Chinese already had the mice research, and the experiment's real intention is to create super-intelligent people, while we're busy trying to create super-soldiers. God, we're such idiots. Normally-brained Chinese are smarter than us.

There is no evidence that He actually set out to modify the twins’ intelligence.

Sure, whatever.

The Chinese team, led by He Jiankui of the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, claimed it used CRISPR to delete CCR5 from human embryos, some of which were later used to create pregnancies. HIV requires the CCR5 gene to enter human blood cells.

The experiment has been widely condemned as irresponsible, and He is under investigation in China. News of the first gene-edited babies also inflamed speculation about whether CRISPR technology could one day be used to create super-intelligent humans, perhaps as part of a biotechnology race between the US and China.

Yeah, well, unless we have a secret project going - and I wouldn't put the possibility of that at zero - the Chinese have a jump on us.

MIT Technology Review contacted scientists studying the effects of CCR5 on cognition, and they say the Chinese scientist never reached out to them, as he did to others from whom he hoped to get scientific advice or support.

Analyze that.

Although He never consulted the brain researchers, the Chinese scientist was certainly aware of the link between CCR5 and cognition. It was first shown in 2016 by Zhou and Silva, who found that removing the gene from mice significantly improved their memory. The team had looked at more than 140 different genetic alterations to find which made mice smarter.

I rest my case.

The discoveries about CCR5 are already being followed up in drug trials on both stroke patients and people with HIV, who sometimes suffer memory problems. In those studies, one of which is under way at UCLA, people are being given an anti-HIV drug, Maraviroc, which chemically blocks CCR5, to see if it improves their cognition.

Silva says there is a big difference between trying to correct deficits in such patients and trying to create enhancement.

But not much. Chemicals that block genes are gene modifiers.  The difference is in your arbitrary mores.

“Cognitive problems are one of the biggest unmet needs in medicine. We need drugs, but it’s another thing to take normal people and muck with the DNA or chemistry to improve them,” he says. “We simply don’t know enough to do it. Nature has struck a very fine balance.”

Which we fuck - I mean muck - with every day in myriad ways. Look at what you've just said, Silva. Drugs "muck with the DNA or chemistry", and in the case of medicinal use, it''s hopefully, "to improve" something. You've got a mental block about direct genetic experimentation on humans (which I'm not arguing against - just pointing out), but you've no problem with doing them on animals or using the drugs from those experiments on humans. If people suffering from conditions that could be cured by gene manipulation, I'm sure they'd be happy to give it a go.

“Could it be conceivable that at one point in the future we could increase the average IQ of the population? I would not be a scientist if I said no. The work in mice demonstrates the answer may be yes,” he says. “But mice are not people. We simply don’t know what the consequences will be in mucking around. We are not ready for it yet.”

Then we better get ready.

Personally, I think we could do with some increased intelligence. Is it too late to set up shop at the White House?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

P.S.  Has anyone else noticed that the surname of the Chinese scientist forced the reporters to refer to him in the same way the Bible referrs to God?  Capital H, He.

UPDATE 12/14:  Oops