Let’s say you’re writing a memoir of your entire life. Your fingers are bruised from smashing the keyboards on your computer for the last 16 hours straight. You’ve realized that you misspelled the name of your high school math teach that impacted your life and wanted to credit him in this memoir. After all, this book is going to be the next New York Times Best selling manuscript! Instead of searching through the last 350 pages you typed to find and edit the name of your high school teacher, you want to use a shortcut. The control + F key or command F key allows you to quickly search for and edit any misspelled words in your manuscript. In our DNA, that function is taken on by a system called CRISPR Cas 9.

If a sequence that was causing a health problem needed to be identified, scientist can use this technique to recognize that particular sequence. After locating the target site, the DNA can be cut and edited to reflect a more appropriate sequence. It works as a cut and paste tool for DNA editing.

Imagine a world where any disease can be cured using laboratory techniques. It’s quite hard to believe however, this method is a start in the right direction. CRISPR can be used to hopefully cure life long inherited diseases or even enhance patient care.

References

Palca, J. (2014, June 26). A CRISPR way to fix faulty genes. NPR. Retrieved January 13, 2022, from https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2014/06/26/325213397/a-crispr-way-to-fix-faulty-genes/