Communication about genetic editing: CRISPR, between optimism and false expectations

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7203/metode.9.11288

Keywords:

CRISPR, expectations, interpretation, uncertainty, science communication

Abstract

Communication is essential in all areas of society, but communication in science is inescapable. Communicating means sharing, showing, teaching, and transferring knowledge about discoveries, observations, and findings both to colleagues and to society in general. That is why good communication must always accompany good science. CRISPR genetic editing tools allow us to modify, at will, the genome of any living organism, including our own species. In this text I review the different relevant communicative events in the short but intense life of these «molecular scissors», so called for their ability to cut the DNA molecule effectively and with precision.

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Author Biography

Lluís Montoliu, National Centre for Biotechnolgy  (CNB-CSIC).

CSIC scientific researcher in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Biology at the National Centre for Biotechnology (CNB-CSIC) and the CIBER of Rare Diseases (CIBERER-ISCIII), Madrid (Spain). His team was pioneering in Spain in its use of CRISPR tools to research rare human diseases such as albinism using animal models. In 2006, he founded the International Society for Transgenic Technologies (ISTT), which he presided over until 2014. He is currently the President of the European Society for Pigment Cell Research (ESPCR) and a member of the CSIC ethics committee and the ethics board of the European Research Council (ERC).  

References

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Published

2019-03-06

How to Cite

Montoliu, L. (2019). Communication about genetic editing: CRISPR, between optimism and false expectations. Metode Science Studies Journal, (9), 9–15. https://doi.org/10.7203/metode.9.11288
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Issue

The grounds of science (2019)

Section

#Biotech. The need for biotechnology communication

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