CRISPR JournalPub Date : 2025-08-01Epub Date: 2025-05-20DOI: 10.1089/crispr.2025.0039
Timothy D Hunt
{"title":"Will Advances in Genetic Medicine Lessen the Need for Germline Modifications?","authors":"Timothy D Hunt","doi":"10.1089/crispr.2025.0039","DOIUrl":"10.1089/crispr.2025.0039","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The cell and gene therapy/gene editing industry sits at the intersection of scientific research, technology development, regulation, ethics, and society. Hence, the biotechnology industry has a role in ensuring the inclusion of ethical considerations, diverse stakeholders, and assessments of medical progress, necessity, and realistic timelines for technological feasibility. The Alliance for Regenerative Medicine has sought to facilitate this role, fostering continued discussions of the scientific, ethical, and governance difficulties surrounding heritable human genome editing (HHGE), particularly in light of enormous advances in somatic gene therapies. The need for HHGE to address rare diseases is significantly diminished by the development of alternative approaches. Thoughtful deliberation about HHGE that takes into account the expertise and experience of the biotechnology industry is essential-as are guardrails to prevent unwarranted and irresponsible approaches to HHGE.</p>","PeriodicalId":54232,"journal":{"name":"CRISPR Journal","volume":" ","pages":"245-248"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144112757","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
CRISPR JournalPub Date : 2025-08-01DOI: 10.1177/25731599251367318
Françoise Baylis, John Evans, Timothy Hunt, J Benjamin Hurlbut, Sheila Jasanoff, Douglas Kysar, Katherine Littler, Laurence Lwoff, Peter Mills, Jacob Moses, Matthew Porteus, Krishanu Saha, O Carter Snead, Kaushik Sunder Rajan, David Winickoff, Carrie Wolinetz
{"title":"Global Observatory for Genome Editing Summit Statement: Call for a Charter on Emerging Technologies and Human Dignity.","authors":"Françoise Baylis, John Evans, Timothy Hunt, J Benjamin Hurlbut, Sheila Jasanoff, Douglas Kysar, Katherine Littler, Laurence Lwoff, Peter Mills, Jacob Moses, Matthew Porteus, Krishanu Saha, O Carter Snead, Kaushik Sunder Rajan, David Winickoff, Carrie Wolinetz","doi":"10.1177/25731599251367318","DOIUrl":"10.1177/25731599251367318","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The organizing committee of the 2025 Global Observatory for Genome Editing conference proposes a Charter on Emerging Technologies and Human Dignity. The development of this Charter is guided by four principles: (1) begin with questions of human dignity and the common good; (2) reconsider current innovation systems and the consequences for the distribution of benefits and risks; (3) expand the range of questions for deliberation; and (4) reimagine the limits of research.</p>","PeriodicalId":54232,"journal":{"name":"CRISPR Journal","volume":"8 4","pages":"311-313"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144978365","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
CRISPR JournalPub Date : 2025-08-01Epub Date: 2025-05-21DOI: 10.1089/crispr.2025.0056
Robert D Truog
{"title":"Embryonic Stem Cell Research Oversight Committees: A Model for Oversight of Innovative Research?","authors":"Robert D Truog","doi":"10.1089/crispr.2025.0056","DOIUrl":"10.1089/crispr.2025.0056","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Ethically challenging areas of research raise the question of how science can proceed in an ethically reflective and careful way and what role ethical deliberative bodies at the local level play in this. Important lessons can be drawn from the experience of Embryonic Stem Cell Research Oversight Committees (ESCROs). ESCROs have evolved as reflective spaces in response to changes in the science, including research on \"humanization\" of experimental rodents, embryogenesis, and developing human germ cells. Institutional efforts can contribute to broader goals of open and democratic deliberation.</p>","PeriodicalId":54232,"journal":{"name":"CRISPR Journal","volume":" ","pages":"300-303"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144112742","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
CRISPR JournalPub Date : 2025-08-01Epub Date: 2025-05-21DOI: 10.1089/crispr.2025.0041
Sharon F Terry
{"title":"Editing the Future: A Call for Justice, Humility, and Communion.","authors":"Sharon F Terry","doi":"10.1089/crispr.2025.0041","DOIUrl":"10.1089/crispr.2025.0041","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Technology must exist in the service of people, particularly those suffering from illness and disease. Drawing on decades of experience as the cofounder of a rare genetic disease research organization and my participation in the liberation theology movement of the Roman Catholic Church, in this Perspective, I discuss the high stakes of human heritable genome editing. Values forged in civil rights and social justice movements can inform how genome editing projects consider the vulnerable, the poor, and the voiceless. Those empowered in academia, biotech, philanthropy, and policy should understand that questions about genome editing entail responsibility for shaping the very concept of shared humanity.</p>","PeriodicalId":54232,"journal":{"name":"CRISPR Journal","volume":" ","pages":"249-251"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144112741","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
CRISPR JournalPub Date : 2025-08-01Epub Date: 2025-05-21DOI: 10.1089/crispr.2025.0042
Tay Salimullah
{"title":"Starlink Medicines in Jurassic Healthcare Systems-Are We Ready?","authors":"Tay Salimullah","doi":"10.1089/crispr.2025.0042","DOIUrl":"10.1089/crispr.2025.0042","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Genomic medicines are transforming the landscape of human health-but their promise risks being confined to the few. While science has entered the 21<sup>st</sup> century, most health systems remain unequipped to deliver one-time curative therapies. This essay calls for a global reckoning: what do we truly value in innovation, and how can we align systems, incentives, and ethics to democratize access? Drawing on real-world experience across four continents, it argues for a new social compact-embedding equity, rethinking value, and modernizing delivery-to ensure that the miracles of modern medicine become global, sustainable, and just.</p>","PeriodicalId":54232,"journal":{"name":"CRISPR Journal","volume":" ","pages":"285-287"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144112752","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
CRISPR JournalPub Date : 2025-08-01Epub Date: 2025-05-21DOI: 10.1089/crispr.2025.0059
Patricia J Williams
{"title":"The New Old Colonialism.","authors":"Patricia J Williams","doi":"10.1089/crispr.2025.0059","DOIUrl":"10.1089/crispr.2025.0059","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The question of how law should regulate the manipulation of the human genome or germline is inflected by the interconnected, intersectional parrying among different systems of moral value. Contract law and constitutional law reflect two poles of interest: the transactional aspects of market valuation and the relational aspects of the web of life that acknowledge \"pricelessness.\" In the decades from the initial decoding of the human genome in 2000 to the emergence of CRISPR technologies, powerful companies and powerful individuals now all but own the fate of our species and the health of our planet. The destructive effects of the realignments we are undergoing are still largely invisible (if not for long) and largely unresponsive to conventional checks.</p>","PeriodicalId":54232,"journal":{"name":"CRISPR Journal","volume":" ","pages":"296-299"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144112754","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
CRISPR JournalPub Date : 2025-08-01Epub Date: 2025-05-21DOI: 10.1089/crispr.2025.0040
Roli Mathur
{"title":"Can Genome Editing Therapies Offer Hope Rather Than Frustration? A Perspective on Ethics in India.","authors":"Roli Mathur","doi":"10.1089/crispr.2025.0040","DOIUrl":"10.1089/crispr.2025.0040","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>India's vast population contains a full spectrum of diseases and their variations. The potential of gene editing can be unlocked, but only if the technology is used for the betterment of many, not exclusively the elite. The moral and ethical aspects of this research must be considered in governance frameworks and ethical review to promote access and public engagement. A dialogue between technologists, policymakers, and communities can help align gene editing initiatives with human values. Can these promising technologies offer India's diverse population hope rather than frustration?</p>","PeriodicalId":54232,"journal":{"name":"CRISPR Journal","volume":" ","pages":"266-271"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144112740","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
CRISPR JournalPub Date : 2025-08-01Epub Date: 2025-05-21DOI: 10.1089/crispr.2025.0048
Peter F R Mills
{"title":"Institutional Bioethics: From Critical Interdisciplinarity to Cosmopolitanism.","authors":"Peter F R Mills","doi":"10.1089/crispr.2025.0048","DOIUrl":"10.1089/crispr.2025.0048","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Bioethical institutions around the world have recently evolved from their emergence as a response to the societal challenges posed by advances in life sciences and biotechnology. Over the past quarter century, there has been a shift toward greater interdisciplinarity and inclusivity, incorporating social sciences and public engagement into institutional bioethical practice. In this perspective, I examine the UK's Nuffield Council on Bioethics as a case study of critical interdisciplinarity, contrasting it with more instrumental normative approaches. I highlight the Nuffield Council's commitment to autonomous ethical inquiry, the problematization of foundational assumptions, and the development of a public-facing \"non-expert discourse of experts.\" The challenges faced by this model-including deriving positive normative conclusions, generalizing from situated reflection, and the ambivalent relationship with policymaking-emphasize the need for a globally resonant and action-oriented ethics to guide powerful scientific developments.</p>","PeriodicalId":54232,"journal":{"name":"CRISPR Journal","volume":" ","pages":"304-306"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144112744","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
CRISPR JournalPub Date : 2025-08-01Epub Date: 2025-05-21DOI: 10.1089/crispr.2025.0044
John S Dryzek
{"title":"Toward a Global Deliberative System for Genome Editing.","authors":"John S Dryzek","doi":"10.1089/crispr.2025.0044","DOIUrl":"10.1089/crispr.2025.0044","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Despite widespread agreement on the need for public participation in genome editing governance, questions remain about how best to structure citizen deliberation such that it can better inform policymaking. Representative and transformative conversations are not necessarily enabled by random sampling. Reflecting on lessons learned from recent citizens' juries and assemblies, in this essay I identify group-building, skilling up, recruiting invested participants, and over-sampling of marginal discourses as strategies to advance the contribution of citizen deliberation to a global deliberative system for human heritable genome editing governance.</p>","PeriodicalId":54232,"journal":{"name":"CRISPR Journal","volume":" ","pages":"293-295"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144112756","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
CRISPR JournalPub Date : 2025-08-01Epub Date: 2025-05-21DOI: 10.1089/crispr.2025.0047
Philip Campbell
{"title":"The Roles and Responsibilities of Scientific Journals in Research Governance: Editorial Policymaking at <i>Nature</i> and Springer Nature (1995-2023).","authors":"Philip Campbell","doi":"10.1089/crispr.2025.0047","DOIUrl":"10.1089/crispr.2025.0047","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Scientific journals develop and enforce editorial guidelines that are a component of governing science. In this essay, the former editor-in-chief of <i>Nature</i> reflects on several prominent examples of how scientific journals have been involved in setting and judging ethical norms in scientific research. Editors, in consultation with external experts, can balance transparency and public trust, stakeholder engagement, inclusive consultation, and access to research to address concerns surrounding dual-use research, societal harms, and research integrity.</p>","PeriodicalId":54232,"journal":{"name":"CRISPR Journal","volume":" ","pages":"262-265"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144112755","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}