CRISPR, a powerful gene-editing technology, is revolutionizing the life sciences and medical research. The technology has also become democratized. Costs to use CRISPR are low and decreasing, kits are available to make the use of CRISPR straightforward, and there is a rapidly growing scientific literature describing CRISPR methodologies and novel applications. However, like other powerful advances in the life sciences, CRISPR raises biosecurity concerns: it could be misused for harm, and it lowers technical barriers to biological weapons development. This essay describes the history and dissemination of CRISPR as genome-editing techniques have become widespread, outlines potential biosecurity concerns, and recommends actions governments and scientists may take to reduce biosecurity risks. While it is not possible to eliminate biosecurity risks from the misuse of biotechnologies, including CRISPR, steps can be taken to increase security while allowing this powerful technology to remain widely available for beneficent purposes.

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CRISPR 警告：基因编辑对生物安全的影响

CRISPR 是一种强大的基因编辑技术，正在彻底改变生命科学和医学研究。该技术也已民主化。使用 CRISPR 的成本很低且不断降低，可以使用试剂盒来简化 CRISPR 的使用，并且描述 CRISPR 方法和新应用的科学文献正在迅速增长。然而，与生命科学领域的其他强大进步一样，CRISPR 引发了生物安全问题：它可能被滥用以造成伤害，并且降低了生物武器开发的技术壁垒。这篇文章描述了随着基因组编辑技术的普及，CRISPR 的历史和传播，概述了潜在的生物安全问题，并建议了政府和科学家为降低生物安全风险可能采取的行动。