Kuiken Todd, Barrangou Rodolphe, Grieger Khara
Genetic Engineering and Society Center, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA.
Department of Food, Bioprocessing, and Nutrition Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA.
CRISPR J. 2021 Feb;4(1):25-31. doi: 10.1089/crispr.2020.0098. Epub 2021 Feb 10.
In recent years, the development of diverse CRISPR-based technologies has revolutionized genome manipulation and enabled a broad scientific community in industry, academia, and beyond to redefine research and development for biotechnology products encompassing food, agriculture, and medicine. CRISPR-based genome editing affords tremendous opportunities in agriculture for the breeding of crops and livestock across the food supply chain that could benefit larger portions of the population compared to CRISPR applications in medicine, for example by helping to feed a growing global population, reach sustainability goals, and possibly mitigate the effects of climate change. These promises come alongside concerns of risks and adverse impacts associated with CRISPR-based genome editing and concerns that governance systems that are ill equipped or not well suited to evaluate these risks. The international community will continue to gather, in multiple venues, in the coming years to discuss these concerns. At the same time, responsible research and innovation paradigms also promise to evaluate the risks and benefits better while incorporating broad stakeholder engagement across the research and development process. The CRISPR community therefore must actively engage with these international deliberations, society, and national governance systems that have promised to build better agricultural systems and provide better food products to achieve equitable outcomes while protecting the environment. Without this active engagement, the promises discussed in this paper are sure to be broken.
近年来，多种基于CRISPR的技术的发展彻底改变了基因组操作，使工业、学术界及其他领域的广大科学界能够重新定义涵盖食品、农业和医药的生物技术产品的研发。与医学领域的CRISPR应用相比，基于CRISPR的基因组编辑在农业领域为整个食品供应链中的作物和牲畜育种提供了巨大机遇，可能使更多人口受益，例如有助于养活不断增长的全球人口、实现可持续发展目标，并有可能减轻气候变化的影响。这些前景伴随着对基于CRISPR的基因组编辑相关风险和不利影响的担忧，以及对治理体系无力或不适于评估这些风险的担忧。未来几年，国际社会将继续在多个场合齐聚一堂，讨论这些担忧。与此同时，负责任的研究和创新范式也有望在研发过程中纳入广泛的利益相关者参与，从而更好地评估风险和益处。因此，CRISPR领域的科学界必须积极参与这些国际讨论、社会活动以及国家治理体系，这些体系承诺构建更好的农业系统并提供更好的食品，以在保护环境的同时实现公平的成果。没有这种积极参与，本文所讨论的前景肯定会破灭。
