1. What is genetic engineering?
Personal Genetics Education Project (pgEd)
Harvard Medical School

2. Do now: 5 minute discussion with a partner: 1
Do now: 5 minute discussion with a partner: You’ve been offered a deal from a genomics company. You can get a free genome sequence – an analysis of all your DNA that includes a report of your ancestry, traits and medical profile. The medical profile tells you about diseases for which you have a low risk as well as those for which you have a high risk. Are you interested? Why? 2. For the first 100 volunteers, the company is offering to ”correct” several of the disease-related genes found by the analysis. Would you volunteer for this added service? It is approved by the government for safety, but it is a very new procedure without a great deal of long term study. (Note: This service is not available and will not be in the near future, so use your imagination.)

3. What is genetic modification?
Repairing liver disease in mice by deleting and/or adding genes
Altering genes that affect the
human nervous system
Photo attribution:
Mouse:
Global Panorama: Image Courtesy: Rama, Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 France | Wikimedia Commons
From flickr:
Motor nerve cell, human spinal cord
By downloading this image, you agree to abide by Flickr's restrictions. You also agree to give credit to Carolina Biological Supply Company by adding a caption to the image (Courtesy of Carolina Biological Supply Company) or by linking back to
CC By NC-ND- 2.0 
Image via
Image via
Animals – humans

4. Why might someone want gene therapy?
Photo attribution:
Red blood cells: EM Unit, UCL Medical School, Royal Free Campus
Via Flickr user Wellcome Images
Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons by-nc 2.0 UK, see images.wellcome.ac.uk/indexplus/page/Prices.html
No changes were made
CF:
BruceBlaus. When using this image in external sources it can be cited as: Blausen.com staff. "Blausen gallery 2014". Wikiversity Journal of Medicine. DOI: /wjm/  ISSN   - Own work
Permission details
This work is free and may be used by anyone for any purpose. If you wish to use this content, you do not need to request permission as long as you follow any licensing requirements mentioned on this page. Wikimedia has received an confirming that the copyright holder has approved publication under the terms mentioned on this page. This correspondence has been reviewed by an OTRS member and stored in our permission archive. The correspondence is available to trusted volunteers as ticket # If you have questions about the archived correspondence, please use the OTRS
’Via Flickr/Wellcome Trust -EM Unit, UCL Medical School, Royal Free Campus

5. A genome editing technique that: Targets a specific section of DNA
What is CRISPR?
(Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats)
A genome editing technique that:
Targets a specific section of DNA
Makes a precise cut/break
Can replace or delete small pieces of DNA
Harnesses cellular mechanisms to insert engineered DNA
How is this different from what is
traditionally thought of as genetic engineering?

6. DNA template with desired sequence
Cas9 nuclease with guide RNA
DNA base to be changed
DNA edited to desired sequence

7. Can genetic engineering reduce malaria?
License:
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0
No changes were made.
Photo credit: Yo Handy
Infant surrounded by malaria bed net. Ghana. Photo: © Arne Hoel / World Bank Flickr user: World Bank Photo Collection
Image via

8. Researchers have used genetic engineering to cure a type of liver disease in adult mice
License:
Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic
Photo credit: Lex McKee
Image via

9. A solution to the global shortage of organs
for those in need?
Photo from: Maidiel1 on wikicommons
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
Photo via: Maidiel1 on wikicommons

10. 2015: Researchers experiment with human embryos show CRISPR can work to make genetic modifications
Public Domain
File:Embryo, 8 cells.jpg
Uploaded by Llull~commonswiki
Created: 31 December 2005
Image of 3 day old embryo via wikipedia

11. What is the path forward?
Safety – ethics – informed consent –
human and ecological health
Capitol building:
License: This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.