Avi Maidenberg: Some of the work
being done around gene editing, which has
kind of been a buzzword in our sector for a little
while now, has gotten kind of a centre stage.
Sam Fiorello: I remember three years ago asking
a panel of experts: what will change the
paradigm of agriculture?
And Crispr came up from all of them, saying:
it's a technology that will change everything.
Carlo Montemagno: I think the most exciting thing
I heard about today was the gene editing strategies
going forward, and the idea of being able
to use Crispr to improve the
quality and productivity of our food, while
at the same time eliminating many of the issues
and challenges normally
associated with GMO products.
Sam Fiorello: It allows for very precise,
very inexpensive marker assisted breeding
and gene editing.
I'm confident that we'll see Crispr embedded
in products around the world that will help
us achieve mission impact.
The New Economy: The latest applications for
Crispr gene editing did take centre stage
at the latest Ag Innovation Showcase; but
what does it enable?
Rachel Haurwitz: It's the ability to go inside
of cells and precisely change DNA sequences.
These changes could be very small – maybe
just one base of DNA, or could be large – insertion
of a whole new gene at a particular site.
It's based on a little protein called Cas9,
which is basically a pair of molecular scissors.
By designing a new RNA partner for it, you
can target it to a particular site in the
genome, and actually break the DNA at that
site, cut the DNA.
Turns out cells don't like to have their DNA
broken, and so they quickly go about fixing it.
And how it's fixed is actually what causes
the DNA to be edited.
The New Economy: The ability to specifically change DNA is transforming product development.
New industrial biotec products, and even how
we do basic research.
In agriculture, Crispr is being called
precision breeding, or advanced
breeding – in part, to try to distance the
technology from GMOs.
Rachel Haurwitz: Typically when people talk
about GMOs, they're talking about taking a
piece of DNA or a gene from one species, and
moving it into an entirely different species.
In the case of Crispr gene editing, we're
typically talking about making small changes
inside the organism's own genome.
And in fact, these are often changes that
are already found in the wild.
And this is simply an approach to bring those
specific traits into products faster than
a traditional breeding cycle, which would
take many, many years.
It could be for example drought tolerance,
or perhaps something that touches the consumer
a little bit closer: today I met someone who's
involved with a company who'd like to make
allergen free peanuts using gene editing.
Sam Fiorello: One of the things we need to
be sure of right now is getting in front of
both the regulatory framework for use of Crispr,
and help the general public understand the
importance of that tool.
Because frankly with some of our work in sub-Saharan
Africa for example, we've had scientific solutions
for some of the targets that we're going after,
that keep poor farmers from having the quality
of life that we hope for – we need to get
ahead of that with Crispr, so that all the
tools can get into farmers' fields and on
the plates of consumers as soon as possible.
Rachel Haurwitz: I think having consumer trust
and consumer acceptance is the number one
challenge to ultimately seeing these products
in the market.
Consumers are quickly getting more educated
about their food, and unfortunately there's
a lot of misinformation about where our food
comes from.
And so I think we have an obligation to really
explain to consumers what this technology
is, what it isn't, what it enables, and how
we measure whether it's safe or not.
That was a recurring theme at the Ag
Innovation Showcase: social licence.
Click through to watch our next video, which
asks what went wrong in the GMO debate, and
what lessons the ag industry has learned.
And please subscribe to discover other innovations
disrupting our New Economy.
