Dr. Patrick Harrison:

I might return to an earlier question. It struck me when Dr. Doyle Prestwich and Dr. Badmi were talking that there is a massive parallel to gene editing in humans. We knew how to edit mammalian cells in the 1980s but we could not do it for therapeutic purposes because a marker had to be added. The breakthrough in 2005, which I mentioned earlier, was that cells could be edited with CRISPR without adding that marker. This is something Dr. Doyle Prestwich and Dr. Badmi touched on. With CRISPR, there is a choice. Editing can be done without the marker, which is what they are arguing should go forward, or with a marker, which I think they are arguing against. If that distinction is made, we cannot hide the fact that certain things can be done with CRISPR that people may not want, but there is much that can be done with CRISPR that people could be quite happy with and that could have many benefits for people.