June 9, 2018 heralds an important anniversary for aficionados of the silver screen. Indeed, you might feel a little old when you realise that 25 years has passed since the premiere of Jurassic Park at the Uptown Theatre, Washington DC. Directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Sam Neill and Jeff Goldblum, the film was among the first to showcase the evolving capabilities of computer animation in ordinary cinema. Perhaps more importantly, it exposed many a young imagination (such as my own at the time) to the vast potential of genetic engineering.

The film was, of course, based on the 1990 novel of the same name by Michael Crichton – a graduate of Harvard Medical School. The plots of his medical thrillers were usually based on quasi-futuristic, not-quite-invented-yet-but-almost technology and the flawed human nature that would inevitably lead to its doom. For example, in Prey (2002), bio-nanotechnology intended for medical treatment ends up taking on a mind of its own and threatening the human species. In Timeline (1999), DNA errors lead to psychotic symptoms in time-travellers while, in Jurassic Park, greed and vanity lead to a cascade of system failures in a supposedly perfect security system meant to incarcerate dangerous dinosaurs. One way or another, Crichton’s tales were usually cautionary ones, his thesis being that, if you set up complex order and fail to incorporate the human component, chaos will ultimately ensue.

Crichton was also the creator and executive producer of ER. Originally intended as a film to be directed by Spielberg, it was transformed instead into a television drama that ran for 15 seasons. As a result of its success, Crichton enjoyed the unique accolade of occupying simultaneously the number one chart position of book sales, television ratings and cinema outings for Disclosure, ER and Jurassic Park respectively. Indeed, he sold over 200 million books during his lifetime, a feat unmatched by any other physician-writer to date.  

Twenty-five years after the premiere of Jurassic Park, genetic engineering is seemingly ubiquitous. We may not have created any dinosaurs, but modern medicine is replete with examples of genetic manipulation. The first genetically-modified organism was a bacterium created back in 1973 by Herbert Boyer and Stanley Cohen, pioneers of recombinant-DNA technology – the means by which genetic material from one organism is artificially introduced into the genome of another before replication. By 1974, Rudolf Jaenisch had generated the first genetically-modified mouse and from there the technology began to take off, especially with the foundation of the first genetic engineering company, Genentech in 1976.

Genetic modification has often been controversial, but its contribution to medicine is hard to dispute. Genetically-engineered human insulin was first produced in 1978. More recently, various medical specialties have seen gene-replacement therapy, mostly by way of the insertion of a correct copy of a defective gene into human cells by way of viral vectors. Unsurprisingly, the majority of trials to date have been for cancer, given the large populations affected, the seriousness of the illness and the track record for innovation among oncologists.¹ But wider applicability of gene therapy may include chronic and progressive illnesses such as heart failure, Parkinson’s disease and diabetes.² Infectious diseases may also benefit. So, in the end it seems that Michael Crichton’s technological vision was not as flawed as his characters.

References

1. Collins M, Thrasher A. Gene therapy: progress and predictions. Proc R Soc B 2015; 282: 20143003. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.3003 
2. Kaufmann KB, Buning H, Galy A, Schamback A, Grez M. Gene therapy on the move. EMBO Molecular Medicine 2013; 5:1642-61