中文课程简介

生命之书是用ＤＮＡ这种神秘而奇妙的语言写成的。四个字母的ＤＮＡ以基因为词句，描绘了生命从简单到复杂的进化蓝图。生命起源和进化的奥秘直到近代科学的兴起，直到人类发现了DNA，基因，遗传和变异，才被人类初步了解。但是人们发现，即使经过了３０亿年的进化，生命之书也有错误和疏漏，所以人会有出生缺陷，人会生老病死。能不能对生命的蓝图进行修改，让人类更健康，更优秀？这正是基因编辑技术迅猛发展的根源。本课程将全方位回顾和介绍我们人类发现遗传和ＤＮＡ，初步了解生命进化的部分规律，进而发明了基因工程和基因编辑技术的历史，将详细介绍基因编辑技术的类型，原理和应用，包括ＥＳＣ基因敲除，Ｚｉｎｃ－Ｆｉｎｇｅｒ，ＴＡＬＥＮｓ，还有最近大热的ＣＲＩＳＰＥＲ－ＣＡＳ技术，将展示人类利用自己的知识来掌握自己命运，通过学习生命的文字，然后修改生命之书的伟大历程。最后，本课程也会郑重说明基因编辑技术的缺陷和使用限制，探讨基因编辑等技术的生物伦理学问题，警示生命技术不能滥用。

英文课程简介

The book of life is written in DNA, a wonderful and mysterious language with only 4 letters. Through genes, like sentences, lives were described in that book, which is also a blueprint for all lives during evolution. From the simplest to the most complex forms, including human being,  all lives were therefore constrained and determined by genes, which are sadly found to be far from perfect. There are various mistakes or imperfections, which cause problems, like birth defects, inherited diseases and illness that trouble mankind throughout history. Can we edit that book since we know the language? Can we make life better? That’s the very root of all life science technology and the reason why gene editing is so hot.  In this course, we will review the history of discovery of inheritance and DNA, how we learned preliminarily the grammar of this language, and based on which, our development of the tools in genetic engineering and gene editing aiming to edit the book of life. We will also introduce in detail of all versions of gene editing technology, including the ES Cell based gene knock-out and knock-in, Zinc-Finger based, TALENS based targeted editing as well as the currently prevailing ＣＲＩＳＰＥＲ－ＣＡＳediting technology. Last but not the least, we will discuss the ethical issues associated with gene editing application by addressing concerns and risks of recent applications in clinics.