Stephen Hawking and the superhumans

Could the prediction of genetically modified superhumans by the late Stephen Hawking really come true?

What did Stephen Hawking predict exactly??

Hawking left behind many predictions on the future in his posthumously published book “Brief Answers to the Big Questions”, from the dangers of artificial intelligence to humans leaving Earth to colonise other planets. Another such prediction concerned itself with the rise of a race of superhumans, where the elite use genetic modification to continually design and improve future humans. Anyone else getting Gattaca vibes?

Genetically modified humans – how would that even work?

Genetic modification is nothing new – techniques have been developed for years to make changes to the genomes, the instruction book of life, of various organisms. Originally these techniques could be used to randomly insert genes into a genome through the use of virus vectors, allowing the expression of genes not normally found in that organism.

Recent developments have allowed the system to become more and more precise, inserting the genes into specific sections of the genome, and editing genes in particular places. The newest and most exciting find is the CRISPR-Cas9 system, which can be used to perform incredibly specific alterations and has the potential to be useful in gene therapies for various diseases – or to alter human genes and create superhumans…

So how does the CRISPR-Cas9 system work?

CRISPR stands for Clustered Regularly InterSpaced Palindromic Repeats, which are essentially pieces of DNA found in bacteria used as an immune system to fight off viruses. The process uses the ability to detect certain sequences of DNA through two pieces of RNA, and cut it with a Cas protein – Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier of the University of California recognised the potential of this, and developed it to be used in gene editing by combining the two pieces of RNA into one “guide”RNA and the Cas9 enzyme. Their ground-breaking work has revolutionised genetic modification, and is paving the way for gene therapies, and in Stephen Hawking’s eyes, superhumans.

So will we be seeing genetically modified humans any time soon?

Permanent genetic modification of humans that can be passed down to children (aka “germ-line” modification) is currently illegal globally, but we research into gene therapies for various diseases including cancer, cystic fibrosis and sickle cell disease shows altering human genes is possible.

Despite this, the Nuffield Council on Bioethics recently says that it altering an embryo’s genes could be morally permissible if it’s “in the child’s best interests, and did not add to the kinds of inequalities that already divide society” – whilst that is a step towards germline modification, that final caveat currently puts a stop on the development on any superhumans – but how long will that last?

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The heated legal battle over CRISPR technology

The many applications of CRISPR-Cas9, particularly commercial, means there is much to be gained over owning the intellectual property rights to it. Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier of the University of California were the first group to develop the bacterial immune system into a functional gene editing system, but this doesn’t mean they automatically got the rights to it.

Doudna and Charpentier developed the technique, but they weren’t the ones to apply it to mammals (where the main commercial applications will be). Feng Zhang’s team from the Broad Institute was the one to do this, and recently it appears that they’ve won the battle – but should they have?

The Broad Institute may have developed the technique in mammals, but this only required simple changes from Doudna and Charpentier’s, which could easily be said was the obvious next step – and many other people were also doing the same thing around the same time. There are arguments for both sides, with some saying it’s another example of male dominated scientists getting their way – what do you think?

Read more on the battle: here and here