What if we could cure diseases or even cancer with a snap of our fingers? That is why CRISPR is so important. It can help us edit genes – we can actually change our DNA! And while we’re not yet able to use this technology to cure things like cystic fibrosis, it might be possible in the future.
When you think of bacteria, you might think spoiled food or infections. What you may not know is that bacteria are very useful when it comes to research. We discovered CRISPR in bacteria as a way that they naturally protect themselves (1). Just like how our immune systems remember viruses the second time they attack, CRISPR recognizes things that attack the bacteria (1). Then, the enzymes associated with CRISPR can bind to the foreign DNA and chop it up (2).
So, how can we apply this to diseases and genetic disorders? Well, let’s us cystic fibrosis as an example. Cystic fibrosis is caused by a mutation in a gene, which is just a section of your DNA. CRISPR Cas9, which is the version of CRISPR that we use in the lab, can cut and change that sequence of DNA (2). It could even allow us to replace the removed section of DNA with a normal version of the gene, erasing the disease at its source (2). So, we could cure the incurable!
Sources:
- Bozeman Science (2016). What is CRISPR? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnYppmstxIs
- CRISPR Therapeutics (2012). CRISPR/Cas9. http://www.crisprtx.com/gene-editing/crispr-cas9
