CRISPR isn’t just something you might see on a license plate, it’s a scientific technique combined with the machinery that bacteria use as their immune system. In a similar manner to how our own immune system will remember past viral infections to prevent reinfection, bacteria will remember previous bacteriophage infections by incorporating part of the bacteriophage’s DNA into their own. This method of being able to incorporate foreign DNA into host DNA, is precisely what makes CRISPR so fascinating; it gives scientists the ability to edit DNA with extreme precision and control. In MB 311 (Molecular Microbiology Lab), students get to use CRISPR technology to not only develop non-pathogenic strains of E. coli that are resistant to antibiotics, but we also get to understand on a molecular level, how the mechanics of CRISPR are operating to produce such a highly accurate genome modification.
References: MedlinePlus.gov (https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/understanding/genomicresearch/genomeediting/).