Phage Attack Bacteria

CRISPR is a new gene-modifying tool that has the potential to treat numerous medical conditions by editing genes that are responsible for certain diseases. This technology is based on the ability of bacteria to destroy the DNA of invading viruses. Studies have suggested that this new technology can be applied to human cells, although the idea of chopping up regions of the human genome can be unethical and could even be harmful. In order for the treatment to be administered to a patient, a small piece of RNA and an enzyme that makes a cut in the DNA are delivered to the cells. A biotechnology company, known as Editas Medicine, located in Cambridge, MA, is already designing treatments for conditions of the blood and the eye using CRISPR. For

In theory, CRISPR is an extreme method of gene editing and gene editing has been around for years on end. It has been used on plants to make them a more sustainable crop. CRISPR technology has not yet been perfected to be accessible to everyone. Yet the first clinical crispr trial happened in October of 2016, Michael Le Page tells us that in the first clinical trial of CRISPR being used "Doctors removed immune cells from the blood of a person with lung cancer, used CRISPR to disable a gene called PD-1 and then returned the cells to the body," the results of the trial are said to not be released until 2018 (Le Page 1).

Genome editing is a huge leap forward in science and medicine. Because of recent advances in technology, the study of genes and induced ‘point’ mutations have led to the discovery and advancement of methods previously used in order to mutate genes. The development of Clusters of Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPRs) and CRISPR associated system 9 protein (Cas9) technology is a hugely significant leap forward as this is a tool that could potentially be used for the research into and hopefully the treatment of a range of medical conditions that are genetically related. Cystic fibrosis (Schwank, G. et al, 2013), haemophilia and sickle cell disease are an example of some of the conditions that have the

According to Nature.com, Crispr has been the largest leap in science since 1985, when the previous gene editing software was invented. This software, called PCR took tens of thousands of dollars and several years just to modify a single gene. Crispr, however, can do the same thing in less than a month for as little as thirty dollars per gene. What twenty years ago took a team of highly qualified researchers can now be done by anyone with a high school education. This could also be viewed as a bad thing, should crispr be released to the public, it would put unlimited power into the hands of nearly anyone in the world. Another possibility would be a rise in bioterrorism. Imagine a terrorist organization getting its hands on the power to shape a virus or bacterium however they pleased. While there are safer, albeit less effective ways to fix a genetic disorder, most scientists agree that it would be a waste to "toss crispr in the trash" simply because of its scary

Since the 1980’s, scientists observed a unnatural patterns in some bacterial genomes. One DNA sequence would be repeated over and over again, with original sequences in between the repeats. They called this odd function “clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats,” or CRISPR. This was confusing to all until scientists realized the unique sequences in between the repeats matched the DNA of viruses, specifically viruses that target certain bacteria. It turns out CRISPR is an important part in the bacteria’s immune system, which keeps harmful viruses around so it is recognizable and can defend against those viruses next time they attack for an example; kind of like a book one would keep around to look back on for help even though one does not need the book at the time. The second part of the defense mechanism is a set of enzymes called Cas or, CRISPR-associated proteins, which can precisely locate DNA and remove all of the invading viruses. Conveniently, the genes that encode for Cas are always sitting somewhere near the CRISPR sequences kind

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.

CRISPR stands for Clustered Regularly-Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, so it’s simple to see why it was abbreviated. Whilst the topic of genetic modification with humans has been relatively untouched, and in many cases unheard of, in the general public, when we learnt about genetic modification, we learnt more about the way that it works rather than how far we can go with this new technology. What can we do with this, how much can we modify our own genes and to what extent can we do so?

For many years biomedical researchers like myself have been trying to create more proactive ways to amend the genome for living cells. In more recent fieldwork studies there has been a new state of the art instrument based on bacterial CRISP in close works with protein 9 often referred to as CAS9 from the streptococcus progenies have possibly unlocked new data. The CRISP/CAS9 tries to manipulate the function of the gene using homologous recombination and RNA interference, but is set back because it can only provide short term restriction of the genes function and it’s iffy off- target effects.

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

CRISPR stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat, referring to the repeating DNA sequences found in the genomes of microorganisms. CRISPR technology allows scientists to make precise changes in genes by splicing and replacing these DNA sequences with new ones. Through these changes, the biology of the cell is altered and possibly affects the health of an organism. The possibilities are endless as this offers opportunities in curing deadly diseases, modifying genes, and changing humanity as we know it. Although bioengineering has been around since the 1960s, CRISPR is significant because of the comparative low costs and the ease of the procedure to

There are other types of gene editing out there but research shows us that CRISPR is fast, precise, and simple. Researchers are developing a way for CRISPR therapy to help with Alzheimer’s all the way to HIV. There are two categories the researchers and people have put CRISPR in: practical and philosophical. The researchers say that the immediate barrier is practical. During the tests, CRISPR has found targets in other parts of the DNA that need fixing other than the intended part of the DNA. Because of this, it may take at least a generation to ensure that it is safe. Some people oppose CRISPR because the oppositionists say it lets people play god but getting medicine every time you get sick with the same thing obscures the natural order of things. The opportunities are getting pushed ahead for treating cancer, childhood diseases that are genetic, and how to understand diabetes better. The one question some people have is whether it’s right to edit genes that are

The author gives a brief history of past genome editing but thoroughly explains the history and mechanism of the CRISPR technology. She elaborates on how the technology has already been used to cure diseases and speculates on its future uses and regulation.

The ease of reprogramming allows researchers to evaluate the effects of genetic alterations without using large amounts of their funding. David Warmflash, an astrobiologist and science writer, explained that instead of having to alter the design or setup, the guide RNA can easily be switched out or changed to target an alternative DNA sequence, all while using the same equipment. This saves money both in the initial editing of the sequence and in tests to evaluate the alteration’s precision since money doesn’t have to be spent on additional machines and time is saved on experimental design. This decreased cost of usage greatly influences gene therapies that could be researched and potentially offered in the future. Since it costs less to use, the amount companies would charge patients would be less. This could result in an increase of insurance companies willing to cover CRISPR therapies, increasing attainability for patients and potential profit for companies if CRISPR gene therapies are commercialized.

In “Life the Remix,” Alice Park discusses the impact and influence CRISPR has on science as well as its potential and risks. CRISPR—“clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats”—is a technique to alter DNA, virtually for anything involving DNA. Although there have been attempts to edit DNA, none were as cheap and simple as CRISPR. This technique, which is based on the immune system of a bacetria, revolutionizes genetics after the subsequent discoveries of the molecular scissors enzyme: Cas9 and a method to efficiently and accurately edit human DNA using CRISPR, explains Park.

The antibiotic-resistant population that are not re-sensitised can consequently be displaced by lytic phages. Yosef and colleagues cultured bacteria containing ndm-1 and ctx-M-15 plasmids conferring resistance to carbapenems, a -lactam antibiotic. These cultures were treated with a lysogenizing phage cas-CRISPR, or a control cas phage, followed by the addition of T7-N1C1 lytic phage of which the lysogenized cas-CRISPR bacteria were protected. A significantly greater number of the bacterial cells treated with cas-CRISPR phage were resistant to the T7-N1C1 phage as compared to those cells treated with the control cas phage (Yosef, et al., 2015). To confirm the loss of antibiotic-resistant genes, phage-resistant colonies were inoculated onto streptomycin-containing plates, revealing that all bacteria lysogenized with cas-CRISPR phage lost their resistance and became sensitive to streptomycin (Yosef, et al., 2015). Therefore, Yosef successfully demonstrated that selective pressure for antibiotic sensitive bacteria can be achieved through the use of phages. However, sensitised bacteria could be less fit than resistant bacteria due to the genetic burden of the transferred CRISPR-Cas and accompanying phage genes.