From Scientific Exile To Gene Editing Pioneer

Short Wave

NPR

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4.7 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 14 December 2022

⏱️ 12 minutes

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Summary

Gene editing was a new idea in the mid-1970s. So when Harvard and MIT planned new research in recombinant DNA, alarm bells went off. "People were worried about a 'Frankengene,'" says Lydia Villa-Komaroff, then a freshly minted PhD. Amidst a political circus, the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts banned research into recombinant DNA, forcing scientists like Villa-Komaroff into exile. But that turned out to be just the prelude to a breakthrough. In this episode, Dr. Villa-Komaroff tells Emily Kwong the story of overcoming the skeptics and coaxing bacteria into producing insulin for humans.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
0:05.0	Today, I want to start with some time travel.
0:08.0	Cambridge, Massachusetts in the 1970s,
0:12.0	a tumultuous decade of anti-war protests,
0:15.0	desegregation of schools, and major scientific controversy.
0:19.0	The controversy began really with some of the scientists,
0:23.0	both at MIT and Harvard, who raised objections.
0:27.0	Lydia Via Comeroff is a molecular biologist,
0:30.0	and a really famous one at that.
0:32.0	But back then, she was a postdoc working in the brand new field
0:36.0	of Recomponent DNA.
0:38.0	We're scientists we're learning how to cut and paste genes.
0:43.0	And when the public found out, it sparked some fear
0:46.0	among the citizens of Cambridge.
0:48.0	The way they would put it was we're mucking around with life.
0:51.0	People were worried about a Franken gene
0:54.0	that perhaps by moving a piece of DNA
0:58.0	from one organism to another,
1:00.0	we might cause something that was truly dreadful.
1:03.0	The tensions came to a head in 1976.
1:06.0	When Cambridge mayor Alfred Valucci called a city council meeting
1:10.0	to debate this research unfolding at Harvard and MIT.
	...

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