From Biotechnology To Biopunk

A foggy atmosphere, and gray skies. Rainy sidewalks colored in neon. High-fashion boots with bold top pieces scattering water around as a misfit runs. Blinding lights reach up to the air, blending into the cyber layers of her eyes. Moving with change isn’t enough for what she fights for just yet. It was one thing that built the game, but she isn’t solely built on tech. In this world made up of a twisted fusion with new waves coming up every day, a one-way sign shines through innovations, corporations, fashion, and manipulation: “The Future is Now.”

See also :ART OF US: The Collaboration of Human Vision and Artificial Intelligence

The visualization in your head is probably familiar to you from a theme that enhanced the world’s possible projections about the years ahead of us; Cyberpunk. Though we are all acquainted with the concept from games, stories, novels, and recently, NFTS; theories and depictions about the cyberpunk future substantially multiplied with the genetic engineering tool CRISPR, intriguing development in the field of biotechnology. Sure is an exciting mixture to dive in, so let’s break down what each of these terms refers to and how they are all connected.

Biotechnology is an interdisciplinary field that involves a wide range of disciplines from nutrition to genetic technology with a focus on improving the functionality of human life. Rooted thousands of years ago, biotechnology started with the cultivation of plants, brewing, fermentation, and selective breeding to procure genetic compatibility so that people could have more fruitful products, and fertile harvests, and systematically involve animals in their everyday lives. Over the years, the scope of biotech has significantly expanded with improvements in science and technology. This helped scientists reach a deeper understanding of DNA, which is a molecule that makes up the genetic code of an organism. It is made up of instructions for the organism to function, grow and reproduce and for these processes to work, proteins must be produced. Any DNA sequence that carries the instruction to produce a protein is called a gene. Since the 1970s, gene modification has been possible using a variety of methods. As genetic discoveries paved the way for many steps to be taken in the field of genetic engineering, developments followed one another rapidly. With the discovery of restriction enzymes that allow DNA to be cut from intended locations, scientists became able to isolate genes from an organism’s genome and modifications such as addition, deletion and transformation became applicable to DNA. The execution was quite hard since it required precision and the methods used did not fully meet it until CRISPR came in as a major turning point.

CRISPR is a defense mechanism first spotted in a group of bacteria. When bacteria become infected with a virus, they take some of the virus’ DNA to their own and create segments called CRISPR arrays. These segments allow them to recognize the virus when it strikes again. This allows bacteria to cut the DNA in precise locations using the Cas9 enzyme and deactivate the virus. The system was quickly adapted to edit DNA. Even though there were certain methods to modify genes before CRISPR, the fact that it was cheaper and a lot more precise compared to previous procedures shortly led the system to form the basis of gene editing technology. Being able to identify which genes are associated with specific diseases and modify them, aroused great excitement in the scientific world as it carried a huge potential of healing many incurable diseases such as cancer, HIV, and Alzheimer’s.

Along with being a miraculous opportunity, the technology also brought and continues to bring ethical issues. The foundation of these concerns stems from CRISPR being too accessible and not requiring technical knowledge for use. Unsupervised use of CRISPR can spread, get out of control and compromise its scientific merits. In addition, being able to easily make modifications to the genomes of all existing organisms carry the potential of causing unwanted or dangerous mutations. Maybe, even to the extent of the actualization of Biopunk: a sci-fi-originated sub-genre of Cyberpunk that is revolved around a dystopic projection of the future. An idea that was born from these specific concerns, Biopunk displays a future model made up of mega-corporations that continuously profit from cybernetics and genetic body modifications while society lives in a dark underworld of crime. Drawing attention to a system that has gone completely wrong, it stands as a statement, criticism, and warning considering that biotech might lose its sight and go astray. Though the actualization of genetically modified mutant creatures walking around is questionable, we know that our whole improvement as a species started as an idea, a spark of imagination and expansion in perspective from the very beginning. Human vision has always preceded technology and once it is genetics, there is no turning back.

However, even if Biopunk turns out to correctly reflect the future that is awaiting us, there will still be many questions to be asked. We might not be apart from nature no matter what we do, as we built our evolution upon analyzing, projecting, and using natural mechanics. It’s just honest to acknowledge that wherever there is a choice, there is responsibility. So, do we go against nature by changing the genetics of organisms? Or is this just being done by nature itself through us? Do we separate ourselves from the universal laws with our actions? Or do we naturally blend with it as a tiny part of the universal entropy? How to answer, you’re free to choose.

REFERENCES

https://www.synthego.com/blog/crispr-cure-diseases

https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/understanding/genomicresearch/genomeediting/

https://www.genome.gov/about-genomics/fact-sheets/Deoxyribonucleic-Acid-Fact-Sheet

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_genetic_engineering

https://explorebiotech.com/everything-wanted-know-term-biopunk/

http://www.crisprtx.com/gene-editing/crispr-cas9

https://www.taconic.com/taconic-insights/model-generation-solutions/crispr-genome-engineering-advantages-limitations.html

https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/understanding/genomicresearch/genomeediting/

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00207238008737419?journalCode=genv20#:~:text=Genetic%20engineering%20is%20accomplished%20in,vector%20in%20an%20appropriate%20host.

https://www.neondystopia.com/what-is-cyberpunk/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5847661/

https://www.science.org/content/article/crispr-injected-blood-treats-genetic-disease-first-time

http://www.crisprtx.com/gene-editing/crispr-cas9 

https://www.broadinstitute.org/what-broad/areas-focus/project-spotlight/questions-and-answers-about-crispr

https://www.embopress.org/doi/full/10.15252/embr.201541337