Ethical Considerations and Challenges in Gene Editing Technologies Applied to Drug Discovery

The conventional medical system is ready to venture into the field of molecular medicine. Now, methods that can change DNA coding have been demonstrated by the vast amount of knowledge and ongoing research. Methods used for altering or editing the genome were developed from previous attempts, such as homing endonucleases, nuclease technologies, and specific chemical techniques. Mega nuclease, Transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs) and zinc-finger nucleases (ZFNs) are examples of molecular techniques that were first used to edit genomes. Because of their off-target side effects, these early technologies have lower specificity. Furthermore, from the standpoint of biotechnology, the primary challenge was creating straightforward yet efficient delivery systems for getting into the host cell. Since that time, Research labs have been using small RNAs, like small interfering RNA (siRNA) and microRNA (miRNA), in place of lab animals and cell lines. It seems that this more recent biotechnology advances molecular engineering techniques through genome-engineering.