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Comment by what_is_orcas | Hacker News Reader

I'm curious why you question CRISPR. I've worked with CRISPR; I've seen some very unexpected results from its use; I've also not really kept up with the science in the past few years.

Do you have experience working with CRISPR? Is there a study or set of studies that concerns you, or is it the reality that negative results don't get really get published?

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There's nothing in the comment that "questions" CRISPR, it's just pointing out that due to the larger space of possibilities more care needs to be taken with it.

I interpreted the comments about CRISPR in the parent comment to be more or less cautionary, and I used "question" as a way to say "not sure about the benefits". Sorry if I was unclear, I will work harder on my communication.

CRISPR is basically find-and-replace with DNA. DNA expression is weird and complicated, and some bits do different things depending on the environmental context. There's a lot of potential for things to go wrong.

mRNA vaccines are injecting simple, engineered mRNA. This mRNA is expressed 100% of the time; what it does is very simple. I'd be confident using a new mRNA vaccine on day 1, so long as they're certain they picked the right protein, but I wouldn't be confident using a CRISPR treatment without a full medical trial.

I know what CRISPR is.

Like I said, I worked with it in grad-school. I agree with you in general, though I will say that if I was in a position to get CRISPR as a treatment, I would probably have a lot of questions for my doctor, but I wouldn't dismiss it outright.

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