The CRISPR Team: Is It Flu Or Ebola?

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

Once the complex was bound to the DNA, a cut would be made to eliminate and destroy the invaders. 83% of archaeal genomes and 45% of bacterial genomes (Shabbir, M. et al, 2016) were shown to be able to successfully utilize the CRISPR Cas9 system. These are very promising statistics, so it is no wonder that there has been such an advancement in the past few years to bring this technology to eukaryotic cells, mammalian cells and eventually human cells.

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 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

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.

More recently, Kang et al have employed a different approach using a non-viral delivery method for CRISPR-Cas, known as the

Every few years, advancements in technology alter the way scientists do their work. Recently CRISPR-Cas9, a RNA useful for working organisms in the animal kingdom has proven itself beneficial on a gene-editing platform. After performing many abortive attempts to manipulate gene function, including homologous recombination and RNA interference, scientists have finally had a breakthrough with CRISPR-Cas9.

Granted there have been other gene editing techniques used before, but by far CRISPR has been reported to have the most potential to revolutionize different areas where the method is applicable. The fields that researchers believe these modification resources will be the most beneficial, include but are not limited to medicine for curing and preventing diseases, creating socially ideal children, and perhaps aiding in the decrease of world hunger. While these goals do seem quite optimistical, scientists have high hopes for what CRISPR will be able to accomplish with time. Currently the system is just now being tested out on living organisms, with the ambition of figuring ways to genetically terminate diseases (2).

Ryland F. Young III’s article, “Secret Weapon,” begins by explaining the efficiency of CRISPR defense. Bacteria’s are infected by bacteriophages 1030 times a day. Bacteriophages mutate and undergo an unfathomable amount of genomic recombination that makes it difficult for bacteria to defend themselves from these viruses. Scientist discovered a new bacteria defense systems called CRISPR. This process in combination restriction-modification, restriction enzymes and apoptosis allows bacteria to protect themselves from invading viruses. CRISPR defense is effective because it forced bacteriophages to undergo intense recombination shuffling down to a scale of the size of CRISPR spaces, instead of just mutating. Though CRISPR defense is an effective

A gene editing method called CRISPR, Science’s 2015 Breakthrough of the Year, is an easy and inexpensive way to cause the “DNA-cutting enzyme” to cut out specific parts of the DNA strand, therefore changing the genetic composition of an organism. Another way to use the CRISPR is to use it to deliver regulatory factors to successfully turn genes on or off and any level in between, which can help save lives by turning off deadly genes. CRISPR is currently being used for biomedical purposes, such as repairing genetic defects or creating tissue-based treatments. This genetic editing method could be used and is being used to change the very animals and plants that we know today by creating allergen-free peanuts or virus resisting pigs.

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.

In recent years it has been found that prokaryotes, mainly bacteria and Achaea, contain an immune system that allows them to defend themselves against the nucleic acids that are integrated by viral genomes. Therefore, this discovery was made by studying the genomes of bacterial cells; which shed light on the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) identified in many bacterial genomes. Therefore, the identification of CRISPR was first discovered in 1987 but its function was unknown at the time. However, the significance of these genetic elements came into light in the early 2000s as they began to be identified in a number of prokaryotes. Furthermore, it was later established that these short spaces

One avenue of research that is currently being studied is T cell gene editing focused on the CCR5 delta32 mutation in HIV infected patients using the CRISPR/cas9 system. There is some research using TALENS, but evidence with CRISPR/cas9 will be discussed here (Ye, 2014). The CRISPR technique that edits gene sequences has been also researched for use in Hepatitis B, Epstein Bar Virus, Malaria, and Human Papilloma Virus. Simply put, the CRISPR/cas9 system can be

Fig. 1. Demonstration of Type II CRISPR-Cas systems with Cas9 protein: (1) When a new virus infects a bacteria, its genome which will convert from RNA to double stranded DNA into the bacteria. Using the genetic information, new DNA spacers will be created. (2) Cas genes produces Cas protein through transcription and translation. Meanwhile, the new spacer sequence will be transcribed into CRISPR RNA (crRNA). (3)Trans-activating crRNA (tracrRNA) which acts as a guidance in searching target DNA is also formed and combine with Cas9 protein. (4) crRNA and tracrRNA which bind with Cas9 protein are hybridized. (5) The complex will then search for, bind with and unwind the target double stranded DNA sequence. (6) Finally, the target DNA sequence will be sliced up by the Cas9 complex (Sakuma & Yamamoto, 2015).