Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Michael Bunce: Genetics Expert on the applications of gene-editing research and the Government shifting regulations

Transcript

Michael Bunce: Genetics Expert on the applications of gene-editing research and the Government shifting regulations · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Government's taking genetic editing out of the lab that's been
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: confirmed from as early as next year. At low risk
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: and well understood gene technologies can be used outside of
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: the laboratory settings without any regulation. It's been banned for
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: thirty years. A dedicated regulator will be set up to
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: manage the gene technologies. And Michael Buntz is with the
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Otaga University and Curtain University, is a professor genetics expert
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: and he's with us this morning. Mike, Good morning, Good
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: morning Ryan. What has changed in genomeniting since nineteen ninety
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: six or since the late nineties.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: An awful lot since over the last thirty years, we've
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: gone from things like the human genome costing four billion
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: dollars and taking a decade complete to now been done
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: for about one thousand dollars in a day. And we've
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: had the advent of new things, you know, are a
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: jargons such as Crisper, which is the ability to edit genes.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: So we've got lots of genetic information out there, got
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: the ability to sort of find and replace function within
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: the genome if you like.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: So it's quicker, it's more efficient, is it safer?
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: If it is so these new precision editing tools, as
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: I set, it's a bit of a fine and replaced
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: within a document, so we're able to sort of look
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: for a specific word within a document and replace it
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: with another piece of genetic code quite easily. So it's
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: moved into the realm of called precision editing. So we've
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: always edited the DNA of the organisms around us, especially
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: things like crops et cetera, because they we've done it
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: through selective breeding over thousands of years, but that is
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: speeding up this. So now we've got these gene editing
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: tools which are sort of almost indistinguishable away from domestic
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: breeding that's occurred over over decades.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: So we've been doing this outside already, and now we're
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: going to be able to do it in the lads.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: We've been you know, I guess that through that domestication
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: process and choosing different variants similar golden kiwi fruit. We've
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: been doing it for I think, and now we're going
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: to sort of like speed up that process. And you
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: know what the government has signaled in this new gene
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: Technology bill, and we're still light on details about what
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: it's going to do, but it's going to it's going
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: to bring us in line with what's happening internationally. We're
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: saying some of these low risk applications, we're going to
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: move away from, you know, a fully precautionary approach that
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: we've got in the moment into into something that's slightly
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: more permissive.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: And slightly more grown up. In the approach we're taking
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: what there's a pine tree example that you talk about.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: What is that. Yeah, well, there's lots of applications of
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: the gene technology. We're using it for making medicines such
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: as in zelin. At the moment, we're using it for
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: cancer cells. But when we're talking about you know, planting
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: things in New Zealand for the first time. We've got
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: lots of genetically modified organisms in New Zealand at the
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: moment in terms of meat, distance and food. But when
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: we're talking about using it actually growing our own material
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: in New Zealand, we've got to look at examples of that.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: Or one of those examples is a sterile pine tree.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: So we know about the problem of wilding pines in
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: New Zealand that they spread into the conservation estate and
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: onto farmlands. And you know, one of the applications that's
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: been touted is just when you put a pine tree
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: in the ground, if it can't reproduce, it stays where
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: it is, so we don't end up with this big
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: seed bank sort of moving all around New Zealand.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: So we can desect pine trees, we.
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: Can, and that you know, sign has been developing that
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: technology for years and you know a huge industry for
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: New Zealand, but also a major environmental problem. So these
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: are the sort of win wind examples that the government
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: wants to take a closer look at rather than this
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: sort of quite precautionary approach. So it's not really been
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: banned in New Zealand. It's the wrong set of technology,
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: but it's been so precautionary and there's been so much
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: red tape and hoop jumping that's going on that that
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: it's starting to create problems for us.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, really interesting and I'm very excited to see where
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: some of this research might lead. It's Michael Buntz. He
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: is a genetics expert. He's with OTAGA and Kirton University
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: as a professor.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: For more from News Talks ab listen live on air
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: or online and
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: Keep our shows with you wherever you go with our
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: podcasts on iHeartRadio,