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Gene genies: CRISPR’s critical moment
- New Zealand faces a projected population decline driven by rising emigration and slowing immigration, potentially shifting from a "brain exchange" to a "brain drain" if the economic disparity with Australia persists, with experienced professionals and extended families less likely to return than previous generations.
- Australia is expected to continue actively recruiting New Zealand healthcare and police personnel through state-specific campaigns offering bonuses and higher wages, while the likelihood of New Zealanders living abroad returning home is decreasing due to widening economic gaps.
- India's government is anticipated to struggle with discouraging gold purchases without structural reforms regarding capital mobility or land records, with gold smuggling expected to persist if policies rely solely on duties, as seen in recent concealment attempts.
- Global gold demand in Asia is projected to remain high as a hedge against currency depreciation and capital controls, likely keeping trade deficits in nations like India and China under pressure and creating a "vicious cycle" where citizens buy gold to protect against the falling Indian rupee.
- The price of gold is predicted to continue breaking records, having already surpassed the $3,000 per ounce milestone, despite regulatory challenges.
- Regulations exempting gene-edited foods from GMO rules are likely to be passed in regions including the UK and EU to streamline market access, with bills such as the Precision Breeding Act cited as part of this trend.
- Medicine sector regulation is expected to loosen to accelerate approval for small-batch, on-demand CRISPR therapies targeting unique patient mutations, while clinical trials for edited pig organs suitable for human transplantation are projected to begin later this summer.
- In-donor CRISPR editing is expected to progress further despite remaining in early stages and requiring continued investment, whereas the cost of current therapies, currently around $2 million per patient, is forecast to decrease as technology matures and procedures become less invasive.
- Future CRISPR applications are expected to expand beyond human health to agriculture, aiming to increase yields, improve nutrition (e.g., fiber-rich wheat), protect against climate change and disease, and introduce non-browning foods like avocados and taste-modified mustard greens.
- The potential of CRISPR in both agriculture and medicine is predicted to grow as scientific understanding of the genetics underlying rare and common diseases advances.
- US birth rates are expected to be explored as a declining metric sparking a "make babies great again" movement that is emerging as a significant cultural and political battle line.