The Brave New World of CRISPR Gene Editing

The session will be led by Professor Matthew Cobb, professor of Zoology at the University of Manchester.

Over the last five years, biology and medicine have been shaken by the discovery of a new way of easily and quickly editing genes, which goes by the acronym CRISPR. In this talk Matthew explains the science behind this new technology and describes the conflict between research groups in their quest for fame and money. The key part of the talk focuses on the huge ethical challenges posed by CRISPR. This technology enables us to change the genes of human beings for both good and ill, above all it gives us the possibility of changing the entire ecosystem.