CRISPR/Cas9 Research Paper

Humans have been genetically engineering organisms for nearly 10,000 years using traditional methods of modification—among these methods include selective breeding and crossbreeding. Though effective, these methods were unreliable and were only able to change certain traits. A lack of control over our genetic material proved to be a clear hindrance to our species; when harnessed, advancements in other fields of knowledge would be immeasurable. Once seen as an impossible task, scientists have been able to exploit genes and take control of them. CRISPR-Cas9 is a system that allows scientists to cleave off sections of DNA and artificially modify them by inserting a mutation into the place of the old DNA. This is exceptionally precise, whilst

CRISPR has been garnishing a lot of media attention recently and it is not just popular among the scientific community but also the general public. Several online news outlets and scientific journals have been talking about the significance CRISPR-Cas could have for the field of genetics and science as a whole. I even came across a Youtube video from The Verge, a tech channel that normally does reviews on new smartphones and laptops talking about CRISPR [15]. So why is CRISPR gaining so much attention both from the scientific community and the general public? The answer lies in the potential this technology possesses.

The current applications of CRISPR have improved thoroughly since the first days of transgenic creations, and now with the help of the previously mentioned transgenic organisms, CRISPR has been created. CRISPR is currently being used in a variety of ways, whether it be through adaptation to severe weather, or even through creating medication to cure previously incurable diseases. There are no lengths

This compared to previous gene modification is like a map is to GPS. Crisper not only can modify a bacteria cell but with all cells. It is usable in everything from microorganisms to plant and animals to humans and embryos. This advancement allowed for the precise modification of a single gene leading to more innovative ideas. As many genetic disorders are caused by the mutation of a single gene CRISPER has the ability to cure millions of suffering individuals and essentially eradicate further

There have been reports stating that some countries have already been using the CRISPR-Cas9 technique.

The CRISPR protein contains the Cas9 enzyme that uses a guide sequence within RNA to form base pairs with DNA target sequences. This allows the enzyme to break the DNA at a specific region in the strand (Doudna & Charpentier, 2014). In other words, the Cas9 acts as a pair of scissors in order to cut the DNA at a specific location so that parts of DNA can then be changed by adding in or deleting fragments of the genome. Because CRISPR-Cas9 programming is simple and has the capacity to recognize targets at multiple areas, this has granted for many exceptional developments to be made concerning the editing, modification, regulation, and marking of genomic loci precisely and

Scientist Francisco Mojica was the first scientist to characterize a CRISPR locus in 1993, at the University of Alicante in Spain. Mojica studied CRISPR throughout the 1990’s and early 2000’s, and in 2002 the term CRISPR was first used in print by Ruud Jansen. Later, in 2005, Mojica discovered that sequences he discovered matched sections of genes from bacteriophage, which led him to hypothesize that CRISPR is actually an immune system from the bacteriophage. His hypothesis was indeed correct. Also in 2005, Cas9 was discovered by Alexander Bolotin, at the French National Institute for Agricultural Research while he was researching recently sequenced bacteria. Bolotin found that a CRISPR locus was similar to others that had already been discovered,

CRISPR can be used to treat many types of cancer. The next question that one may ask is if we can identify this gene that causes cancer, in order to use the CRISPR technology. The next question is that if a gene can be identified then one must ask how we will use the CAS-9 system to combat the faulty genes in these cells. However, recently researchers at MIT have published an article discussing the techniques of solving these problems. The author states that the CRISPR was introduced by cutting and injecting re-introduced genes into the liver cells. This converted the mutated cell types into normal wild cell types. By using this technique researchers can now look into how the BRCA gene mutation which gives women a high probability of breast

The CRISPR-Cas (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat-CRISPR associated protein) system is a defense mechanism found in bacteria and archaea to target and inactivate foreign DNA materials such as viral DNA. The foreign DNA is integrated into the CRISPR array. The inserted DNA, known as a spacer, is transcribed from CRISPR loci and translated into short CRISPR RNAs (crRNAs). The crRNA, also known as a guide RNA (gRNA), forms a complex with Cas9. This RNA-Cas9 complex scans for invading DNA materials complementary to the gRNA and cleaves it by Cas9, a protein encoded by CRISPR loci. Cas9 consists of an RNA binding domain, nuclease lobe for DNA cleavage, and protospacer adjacent motif (PAM) interacting sites recognizing the

CRISPR stands for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat and the Cas9 stands for CRISPR associated nuclease nine. There are three major types of CRISPR-Cas systems and the Cas9 system is a type two system (Lundgren et al. 2015). The sgRNA used is produced from a targeting sequence (crRNA) and a Cas9 nuclease-recruiting sequence which is trans-activating CRISPR RNA (tracrRNA). The target sequence for sgRNA must be ajacent to the PAM sequence that has a base sequence of NGG or NAG (G is guanine, A is adenine and N is any nucleotide). The sgRNA

This easy-to-use technique will facilitate understanding genome functions and their relationships. It has sparked a revolution in genome engineering field since 2012. Below we review the history of CRISPR-Cas9 system development, reveal its underlying molecular mechanism and discuss its applications, challenges and future avenues of this novel

Gene editing is the technique using to edit specific parts a genetic sequence to express or suppress a characteristic in an organism. In 2002, Ruud Jansen performed an “in silico analysis” to study a family of repetitive DNA sequences in only prokaryotes (Jansen 2002). In silico analysis is a type of testing done by using a computer simulation (“In Silico”). The researchers called the families clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats or CRISPR (Jansen). They found that cas genes were always adjacent to CRISPR loci which indicated a functional relationship between the two.

Hsu, P., Lander, E., & Zhang, F. (2014). Development and Applications of CRISPR-Cas9 for Genome Engineering. Cell, 157(6), 1262-1278. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2014.05.010

Three types of CRISPR mechanisms, the most studied type II, have been described. In Type II, DNA is infected from viruses or plasmids, subdivided into small pieces, and incorporated into a CRISPR locus between a series of short repeats (about 20 bps). The loci are transcribed

The last few decade, technology has made so much progress that today humans are allowed to do things that never even crossed their mind, modifying the plants and animals and all that progress is for the benefit of humans. Technology has made a great impact in business, communication, education, healthcare, etc. Today in the healthcare, medical research has become extremely advanced, and every disease seemingly has a cure or at least a prevention; it has advanced with the discovery of many drugs and medications that have helped prevent many deadly diseases and disorders at also has advanced with a medical technique that can help cure many diseases. A revolutionary genome-editing tool known as CRISPR- Cas9 is based on something that bacteria do naturally. About a decade ago, scientists realized that bacterial cells possess a defense system that recognizes and chops up the DNA of invading viruses. This revolutionary genome tool could be able to eliminate cancer, malaria, cure blindness, edit human, etc. According to crazy-things-we-can-do-with-crispr-cas9 published by Jay Bennett in Jan 26, 2016 people are already using the tool to make changes to organisms that could revolutionize agriculture, lead to new treatments for diseases with no cure, or even modify human embryos.