DNA breakthrough announced 65 years ago

James D. Watson and Francis H.C. Crick unveiled the double-helix structure of DNA, the carrier of genetic information, 65 years ago. Today’s frequent headlines about advances in DNA editing – and the fraught debate about potential abuse of the technology – frame the anniversary.

The Watson-Crick breakthrough led to prenatal screening for disease genes, genetically engineered organisms and plants, the ability to identify human remains, the design of treatments for diseases such as AIDS and cancer, and tests of physical evidence in criminal trials.

CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) and the related techniques developed in recent years give scientists unprecedented gene-editing accuracy. Potentially, the techniques can prevent thousands of conditions caused by specific inherited mutations. These include sickle cell anemia, cystic fibrosis and certain cases of early-onset Alzheimer’s.

The advances also allow more accurate misuse and abuse of gene-manipulation. There is the issue of unintended consequences of some procedures, and an argument rages about the ethics of working on human embryos. The New York Times notes that some experts warn unregulated genetic engineering may lead to a new form of eugenics, in which people with means pay to have children with enhanced traits even as those with disabilities are devalued.

Detecting abuses and regulating the field to end them is proving a formidable quest. Regulators first have to agree on what determines an abuse, with commercial, safety, religious, societal and ethical arguments all complicating the debate. Then they have to agree on how rigorous controls and oversight should be. Arguably, the pace of the advances in CRISPR and related techniques make agreement a more urgent necessity.