Biology research can change our lives and the world, and it needs to be funded appropriately

As a basic researcher in biology, I seek to understand how life works on a molecular level. The goal of basic science research is to increase our understanding of the world without necessarily seeking to fix a specific problem. The curiosity-driven researcher is like a child who takes apart their parents’ radio to get a look inside and understand how it operates. Unlike radios that have manuals for us to consult when something breaks, people don’t come with a set of instructions on how to cure us when we get sick. The manual for life is being written and updated with every new discovery. Not all discoveries in basic biology lead to breakthroughs in human health, but all advances in medicine are built on a fundamental knowledge of basic biology.

One recent example of a basic discovery that led to breakthroughs in human health is the CRISPR/Cas9 technology. A long-standing obstacle in researching human health and disease has been the challenge of manipulating human DNA. We have ways to create specific mutations in the genome of other organisms used in research, but human cells have a number of safeguards to prevent these kinds of changes to our DNA. While this reduces the chances of any cell in our body from becoming cancerous, it also, unfortunately, means that creating mutations for research purposes is incredibly difficult.

Scientists unexpectedly found a solution to this problem when they discovered that bacterial cells infected with a virus cut and paste pieces of the viral DNA into their own genome. This system, called CRISPR/Cas9, doesn’t have anything to do with human health on the surface, but researchers quickly realized that it could be commandeered to precisely mutate or delete specific genes in human cells. The power to modify human DNA in a targeted manner has more implications than just our ability to study human biology. It is rapidly being applied as a therapeutic for many human diseases.

HIV, malaria, cystic fibrosis and Huntington’s are just a few of the diseases researchers are developing CRISPR-based treatments for. Clinical trials are already being performed in China to use the gene-editing tool to treat advanced cancer. By genetically reprogramming the patient’s immune cells, researchers can make them target and kill the cancer cells. While the many disease-related applications of the CRISPR technology are impressive and exciting, these breakthroughs came from basic, curiosity-driven research.

The applications of basic discoveries are not usually realized as quickly as the CRISPR/Cas9 system was. When Heinrich Hertz conclusively proved the existence of the electromagnetic wave in the 1880s, he believed that they were “…of no use whatsoever.” It wasn’t until after Hertz’s death that his research led to the invention of the radio and changed the way the world communicates. Despite its importance, basic curiosity-driven research is not widely appreciated, leading to a steady decline in funding over the years. Hertz’s work has impacted generations in ways he couldn’t have imagined. Who can predict what discovery will change the world next?