IT’S ONE thing to use jumping genes from flies to make transgenic animals (see opposite), but quite another when it comes to gene therapy in people. The idea of having a bit of fruit fly DNA inserted into your cells is uncomfortably reminiscent of the movie The Fly.
In principle, the added DNA should consist only of the desired genes flanked by short marker sequences—so you wouldn’t have much fly in you. But this DNAis inserted randomly. One fear is that it could land in the wrong place, knocking out vital genes and making cells cancerous.
The chances of…
