On Monday, 20th July, the Faculty of Science welcomed Štěpán Jeřábek, a Czech scientist working at Columbia University in New York. The program was dedicated to the possibilities of targeted human gene editing and the questions arising from their development. During the academic part, Štěpán Jeřábek presented research published in a recent preprint and introduced the method of base editing. He explained how it works, its current limitations, and its potential future in medicine.
The academic session was followed by a Czech part open to the general public audience. The discussion involved not only scientists and researchers, but also attendees with no professional background in biology or medicine. This joint meeting was an interesting and, for the participating scientists, somewhat unusual part of the overall program. It was inspiring to watch how these two groups—which rarely have the opportunity to discuss such topics together—were able to communicate openly and warmly, even about complex ethical issues.
The discussion touched upon the differences between base editing and the CRISPR-Cas9 method, the potential of gene therapy in medicine, the prevention of hereditary diseases, and the risks associated with genetic modifications. Key topics also included the well-known case of genetically modified babies in China, regulations surrounding research on human embryos, and which applications of these methods might be acceptable first in the future.
The program demonstrated that the debate on human DNA editing does not belong solely in laboratories—it affects society as a whole, and open communication between experts and the general public is an essential part of determining its boundaries.
We would like to thank Martin Janda from the Department of Experimental Plant Biology at the Faculty of Science for organizing the entire event.
Since the lecture took place outside the academic term, we understand that many interested people were unable to attend due to scheduling conflicts. We have good news for everyone: an interview with Štěpán Jeřábek on this topic will most likely be released this August on the university podcast, JUcast. Once published, a link will be available right here as well as on our social media channels.
