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Podcast: The Future of Everything
Episode: Mildred Cho: Ethics in the age of easy gene editing
Description: How do new technologies and techniques for altering DNA get used? And who gets to use them?
In recent years, the development of inexpensive genetic sequencing and easy gene editing technologies has given rise to a community of non-academic, amateur researchers who like to refer to themselves, only half-jokingly, as “biohackers.”
But, says Mildred Cho, a research professor who has published frequently about bioethics, such communities are not bound by traditional “first-do-no-harm” ethical norms that professional biologists and physicians adhere to.
There is, for instance, a group of such do-it-yourself researchers pursuing a low-cost insulin substitute that is free of patent p...