Scientists get the formula wrong and turn harmless hamsters into ferocious beasts

Mishandling. In the United States, scientists from Northwestern University in Georgia attempted an experience passing through a very particular system. This system is called “Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats” or “CRISPR”, in French “short repeats in palindrome grouped and regularly spaced”. A little more clearly, it is simply a method that allows the DNA of plants and animals to be modified with very high precision. Using this method, researchers at the University of Georgia wanted to make a genetic cut that would have made a group of hamsters more sociable. They sought to accentuate mutual aid and cooperation by focusing on a particular gene.

the New York Post also specifies that if hamsters and not mice were chosen, it is in particular because the breed of hamsters used is already known for its strong ability to socialise. Indeed the golden hamster, or Syrian hamster, is a breed whose the social model is very similar to that of humans. Only during their scientific experiment, something went wrong. Yes, because despite the genetic modification that has been carried out on the hamsters thanks to genetic cutting, the latter have not become more fraternal but, on the contrary, completely demonic.

A controversial genetic modification technique

Instead of helping each other more and seeing their instinct for collaboration heightened by genetic modification, the hamsters have become ferocious and started showing”signs of very strong aggression towards other hamsters of the same sex”. Attacks, bites, scratches… The hamsters began to behave belligerently with their congeners, even when no offensive attitude was expressed towards them. According to the words of Elliot Albers, one of the researchers, collected by Subwayscientists have been “very surprised by the results”. They indeed thought “reduce aggressiveness“but the opposite effect occurred, leading the researcher to admit that they did not”don’t understand this system as well [qu’ils] thought so”. The method of “genetic scissors” which allows modify or correct a genome is also always at the heart of various controversiesin particular because of the ethical questions it raises.

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