What is CRISPR-Cas9?
Many people may be aware of Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, also known as CRISPR, discovered by Dr. Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier, which can be used to directly modify a person's genes. But what is it? And what are its potential ramifications?
How Does It Work?
First, scientists must find the specific gene that needs to be edited, as well as the specific DNA sequence. Then they create a new strand of RNA known as 'Guide RNA" or gRNA which will match with the specific genetic sequence that the scientists first identified. The gRNA will then bond with the DNA strand that it was matched to with the enzyme CAS9 which catalyzes reactions used to cut bacteria.
After the gRNA bands to the corresponding DNA strand, the CAS9 enzyme will then cut the DNA, allowing scientists to edit the DNA as they need to.
Applications of CRISPR
When most people think of CRISPR, they think of applications in the medical field. These applications could be revolutionary with CRISPR technology giving us the ability to cure many genetic diseases like sickle cell disease or certain cancers. CRISPR can also be used to diagnose certain diseases through finding the gene material of the virus. For example, this proved useful in diagnosing COVID during the pandemic with certain CRISPR technologies being greenlit from the government with the purpose of finding and diagnosing COVID.
While medical applications of CRISPR are significant, they are not the only applications. For example, CRISPR can be used to gene-edit certain plants, creating food that is resistant to potential diseases. This is a more efficient way to edit the genes of certain plants to make them healthier and stronger, something farmers have been doing for centuries.
Ethical Issues
The advent of this technology has led many ethical issues to come into question. Namely, if editing a human being is ok? While eliminating a disease is an objectively good thing, many people debate the line where helping people ends and paying for enhancement begins.
Along with this, many of the effects of gene editing people are not known and the question of risk also comes into play when discussing if CRISPR should be approved for use.
While science has made great progress with Doudna and Charpentiers discovery, it is important to consider the potential ethical and scientific ramifications of this technology and how it could be used.
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