Gene editing will boost intelligence 'within a few decades': Walter Isaacson
Best-selling author Walter Isaacson stunned tech observers 10 years ago with a bombshell biography of late Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs, one of the pioneers of what Isaacson calls the "digital revolution."
This week, Isaacson released a new book centered on gene editing and what he terms the "biotech revolution," which he tells Yahoo Finance "will be even bigger" than the digital revolution that came before it.
In a new interview, Isaacson explains how doctors already use gene-editing technology to cure some genetic diseases like sickle cell anemia. Moreover, he predicts that "within a few decades" the tool will not only cure disease and modify physical attributes but also enhance complex features of an individual's identity, such as memory and intelligence.
"Eventually, we'll be able to edit things that have multiple genes. Then we really get into a brave new world," says Isaacson, whose new book is entitled “The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race.”
"Some of those traits will be relatively easy to add, such as muscle mass [which] is something that's a pretty simply regulated by simple set of genes," he says. "Eventually more complex things, we can probably add things like hair color, eye color, height, and eventually things like memory."
"Of course, down the road a few decades from now, even general intelligence we will be able to tweak things so that you know it will help maybe boost a few IQ points," he adds "That's in the realm of science fiction, but like all good science fiction, some of it has come true already."
CRISPR technology, often dubbed “genetic scissors,” allows scientists to edit the genome of complex organisms like animals or humans with precision. Researchers harness a process found in the immune systems of bacteria to replace, remove, or rearrange sequences of DNA and change the way genes function.
In 2019, doctors used CRISPR to infuse genetically modified cells into the body of Victoria Gray, a 33-year-old woman in Mississippi who suffered from sickle cell anemia. More than a year later, she remained symptom-free, becoming the first person cured of the genetic disorder through the process of gene editing.
Despite this breakthrough, a separate clinical study of CRISPR therapy for sickle cell disease was suspended last month after two patients developed leukemia-like cancer.
Meanwhile, concerns over abuse of CRISPR reached a fever pitch in 2018 when a scientist He Jiankui in Shenzhen, China, altered DNA in human embryos to make them more resistant to HIV. A Chinese court in December 2019 sentenced Jiankui to three years in prison over the "illegal medical practice."
Isaacson spoke to Yahoo Finance Editor-in-Chief Andy Serwer in an episode of “Influencers with Andy Serwer,” a weekly interview series with leaders in business, politics, and entertainment.
Over the past 15 years, Isaacson has written biographies of Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, and Jobs. In addition to his writing, he teaches history at Tulane University and serves as a distinguished fellow at the Aspen Institute.
A Rhodes scholar, he took a job after graduation at a local newspaper in his hometown of New Orleans. He later climbed through the ranks at Time Magazine in the '80s and '90s covering presidential campaigns, the fall of the Soviet Union, and the rise of Silicon Valley.
In his new book, Isaacson profiles biochemist Jennifer Doudna, who co-invented CRISPR and leads the Innovative Genomic Institute, a Berkeley, California-based organization that develops new applications for the technology.
Speaking with Yahoo Finance, Isaacson said Doudna has sought to protect against the risks of CRISPR by developing "many defensive weapons" for the possible ill-effects of a given gene modification. The Innovative Genomic Institute has invested in potential technology that could reverse the damage caused by gene editing gone awry, Isaacson said.
"If somebody makes a mistake, we need a tool to reverse it," Isaacson says. "We should be really careful."
Read more:
Facebook and Twitter algorithms incentivize 'people to get enraged': Walter Isaacson
Bill Gates says Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's explanation for power outages is 'actually wrong'
Netflix co-founder on creative culture: We ‘manage on the edge of chaos’
Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance
