“It is now too late to stop the global spread of these technologies — the genie is out of the bottle,”. “We must treat the coronavirus pandemic as a full dress rehearsal of what is to come — unfortunately, that includes not only viruses that erupt from nature, but also those that will be deliberately engineered by humans.”
That’s mainly due to a technological revolution in genetic engineering, according to Wadhwa, which he believes will give biohackers the tools they need to create deadly pathogens. And not just inside an expensive corporate lab — but from a simple, cheap, DIY setup.
Advancements in genetic sequencing and gene editing — CRISPR in particular — have allowed us to both engineer and edit individual genes, rearranging them at will, giving us control over a process that has taken nature thousands of years.
