Attn biotech: This man wants to be CRISPR’d
MALAKKAR VOHRYZEK BELIEVES GENOME EDITING MIGHT CURE HIS UNTREATABLE — AND UNDIAGNOSABLE — CONDITION. (DANIA MAXWELL/STAT)
Malakkar Vohryzek has a problem: His skin is ultra-sensitive to the sun, such that a daytime stroll can leave him with irritating moles he believes could grow into cancer. And he’s found what could be a solution: A genetic tweak that, in nature, seems to protect cells from harmful radiation. All he needs is someone to CRISPR him and find out.
As STAT’s Sharon Begley reports, Vohryzek has spent the past few months emailing scientists, biotech companies, and biohackers with pleas for help. He wants someone to edit his DNA, and he’s willing to sign away any right to redress if things go awry.
It’s unclear whether what Vohryzek has in mind is even possible, let alone advisable, but bioethicists say his story is unlikely to be the last of its kind. There are scores of untreatable (and, in Vohryzek’s case, undiagnosable) diseases. Coupled with the promise and hype around CRISPR, it seems inevitable that patients will look to unproven science for hope.
Read more.
As STAT’s Sharon Begley reports, Vohryzek has spent the past few months emailing scientists, biotech companies, and biohackers with pleas for help. He wants someone to edit his DNA, and he’s willing to sign away any right to redress if things go awry.
It’s unclear whether what Vohryzek has in mind is even possible, let alone advisable, but bioethicists say his story is unlikely to be the last of its kind. There are scores of untreatable (and, in Vohryzek’s case, undiagnosable) diseases. Coupled with the promise and hype around CRISPR, it seems inevitable that patients will look to unproven science for hope.
Read more.
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