Biology Research Paper: San Francisco State University

    Biology Paper Name Institution: San Francisco State University Course Date    Background Case Western Reserve University working in conjunction with Sangamo Therapeutics has recently received funds to focus on a new technology targeting Gene-Edited T Cells. Gene (genome ) editing refers to technologies associated with changing an organism’s DNA a s the genetic material can be altered, added or removed. The idea behind tee technology is that scientists have focused in infection-fighting T-cells that have been engineered to fight illnesses when relying on the blood cancer treatments (Weintraub, 2018). As such, if this can be replicated in the case of HIV it is likely to be a viable treatment option that improves health outcome sin the long-run when compared to antiretroviral therapies (ART) Scientific method The scientific method associated with the gene therapy is to ensure that there are normal functioning cells.  When there is replacement the mutated genes are removed, at other times they are inactivated or there is introduction of new genes that fight diseases. Cells contain genes meaning that different types of cells are targets of gene therapy. The hypothesis is that treating patients with the gene-edited T cells will improve the T cell counts and eliminate the HIV reservoirs (Weintraub, 2018).  In the experiment the CCR5 genes from the T cells are knocked out or inactivated through gene editing where the edited cells are then repaired and infused into the patients.   A different group would receive unmodified T cells and results would be compared between the two groups.   Pros and cons of new technology The CCR5 edited T cells technology has received attention for the potential to improve health outcomes, but there are benefits and potentially diverse effects of the technology. HIV destroys the T-cells associated with immunity through exploiting the CCR5receptor and if the CCR 5 gene is destroyed this will block the infections. The technology is potentially effective in reducing infections and worsening health outcomes. The technique has been adopted to treat various diseases including sickle cell anemia and various cancers. Sometimes there are mutations make it difficult to treat diseases, but gene editing makes it possible to intervene and change this.  Doctoring DNA has the potential to improve the health of HIV and cancer patients in the long-term as there has been development of the gene therapy treatments over decades.   Various gene editing techniques have been successful and most are successful when the edited cells fit with the unedited cells (Cox, Platt & Zhang, 2015). Even with the best efforts to reduce infections and adverse health outcomes, the gene editing technique can result in modifying unintended DNA sequences such modifications are associated with adverse outcomes. Additionally, there is no way to know whether gene editing techniques further lead to the mutation of diseases that are more difficult to treat.   The impacts of the new gene editing techniques are unknown yet they could affect human health and the environment (Maeder & Gersbach, 2016).  For...