How close do you think you are to Captain America? Probably much closer than you think! With the newest advancements in the field of biology, the ability to genetically modify human beings is rapidly becoming closer to reality. How close that reality really is lies in the Cas 9 protein. Now, perhaps not as many people know or care about Nobel prize-winning discoveries as I would hope, but by the end of this article you, too, will know the basics of  DNA and genetic modification. 

Before everything else, I would quickly like to explain the concept of DNA. The cell is a factory. It has all the machines that would collaborate together, producing everything that the factory needs, and therefore, making it self-sustaining. In this analogy, the DNA acts as the blueprint. The factory bases all of the products it creates on the blueprints that are locked within a safe chamber in the factory. Now, the factory runs automatically - it creates everything that is printed on the blueprints without conscious thought, not knowing whether the products it made is good or bad for the factory… and that creates many problems. Other people could have used the factory for their own gain by sneaking in a copy of their own blueprint. Let us jump back to reality for one second. Viruses sneak into bacteria cells with their own blueprint to replicate themselves. The replication of viruses in bacteria cells would eventually kill the bacteria, as the viruses inside bursts the bacteria cell open.

Like a factory, protection mechanisms must be found to fight against these malicious blueprint hijackers. Otherwise, the factory risks wasting resources printing copies of malicious blueprints in their own neighborhood. Through evolution, bacteria found an incredible defense mechanism - the Cas 9 protein! Think of it as a security gate in front of the chamber of blueprints, shielding the factory from dangerous viruses by preventing the malicious blueprint hijackers from entering the chamber of blueprints.

More specifically, the way that the Cas 9 functions is as follows. Once a bacterium has survived a virus attack, it collects a small piece of the virus DNA, and stores it within the CRISPR system - very similar to how people would blacklist people who we do not like. The Cas 9 protein then checks all of the DNA within the cell, comparing it to the blacklisted DNA one at a time, and cutting away DNA segments that matches the DNA in the CRISPR system, just as security guards would expel any suspicious figures.

The Cas 9 protein would not be as fascinating, if such a protein was only restricted to be used in the bacteria defense system. Although this protein is only naturally found in bacterial cells, we could “borrow” this system from bacteria cells, since every organism shares the same code of

life – DNA! The Cas 9 protein could then function exactly the same in the human body as it would in bacteria cells. In fact, the DNA code for extremely different organisms could be surprisingly similar, such as the code for  humans and bananas. Did you know that, genetically, we are pretty closely related to bananas, sharing more than 60% of our DNA? And because different organisms share the same DNA code, the Cas 9 protein could be manipulated as a pair of DNA scissors to change the DNA for any organisms, including us, humans. All we would have to do is insert the DNA that we want to remove into the Cas 9 protein, and the protein would delete the target DNA away. Which means, we could modify the genetic component of living organisms.

We can start by solving the impossible, such as curing cancer. Think about what cancer is: cancer is a disease caused by uncontrollable cell division, and it happens as a malicious change to DNA. Previously, we dealt with cancer by killing every cancerous and regular cell with toxins. The mass destruction of cells is the essence of chemo- and radiotherapy, which is why people lose hair after cancer treatment – the toxicity does not only target the cancer cells, but also the regular cells, including cells that make hair.

In the case of cancer, the Cas 9 protein has opened up so many new perspectives. We could insert the mutated DNA into the Cas 9 protein and allow the protein to

do what it does best – cutting off the wrong DNA strand! Such a system would be more accurate and safer than the conventional methods mentioned above.

However, we must be extremely cautious about our optimism – and bring the use of Cas 9 protein back under close inspection. It is not a magical tool for us to abuse to solve all the problems we are currently facing. Despite its many advantages, the Cas 9 protein raises just as many problems it can solve, simply because it can modify genetic materials. The genetic

material could be inherited through generations and change people before they were even born. At first, we wouldn’t even recognize this as a problem.The technology would probably be firstly applied to cure inheritable genetic disease, saving people from dying at a young age from an illness or lowering the risk of a miserable old age. From then on, the problem may arise as the public accepts the technology more – if we could save people from diseases such as Alzheimer’s, why shouldn’t we give people genes more adapted to modern society? For example, genes that grant better eyesight or help to combat obesity? There the moral problem arises – where should the boundaries be set? Who is allowed to set these boundaries? How should we prohibit illegal use of this protein?

Humanity itself is defined partly by the imperfectness of our species, and nobody is currently perfect. If one day we have reached perfection – that is, we have created a Superman with genetical methods - the segregation between the new generation of genetically modified humans will be so significant that human civilization will cease to exist - when one person can embody the skills and talents of an entire human population, why would the rest of the population want to live?

Therefore, my opinion towards Cas9 is as follows: Cas 9 is a potent tool and may be one of the greatest inventions of human civilization. It is also a hazardous tool, and we would need to bring the use of the protein under moral scrutiny. A line has to be drawn between what helps humans to be who we are and what changes us fundamentally. For example, finding a cure to a genetic disorder, such as Down’s Syndrome. By altering the genetic components of cells with the Cas 9 protein, scientists could give patients a choice to live an easier life. However, modifying babies, changing their genetic component by giving them unnecessary traits without giving the baby a choice eradicates the idea of free will, and would be a detriment of human civilization.

Since the Cas 9 protein technology is still very new, we as a society should carefully inspect it under scrutiny and develop new values and boundaries around the protein. Of course, the same attitude should be brought into daily life, where we should not make assumptions and judgements about new innovations the first time we see them, using the latest stuff without enough understanding of the positive effects and negative ramifications. Same as how we should not reject something that we are not familiar or uncomfortable with – such as the different genders that people identify as. We should think – or inspect under scrutiny – before we act.

But all in all, there is one thing I can be sure of today – we can all rest assured that, with how difficult it is to program the Cas 9 protein and the many problems we are currently facing in laboratories; we are not going to be replaced by Super Saiyan within the next ten years.