QUESTION 5

As CRISPR continues to be researched and developed, scientists are finding new ways
of using this technology. Usually,when a virus attacks the body,it sends special warrior
enzymes that would try to fight off the virus.Most times, these enzymes are not
successful in their battle but if they are, other enzymes are sent to clean up any ‘stray’
viruses.These cleaners would cut the enemy DNA into small pieces and place them into
their body’s own DNA.If the virus visits again, it will spread its genes everywhere.This
means the virus would be identifiable by the enzymes.Instead of sending the normal
enzymes which barely have a chance at stopping the bacteria, CRISPR is used instead.
As an example given in the podcast,the CRISPR tool would take a ‘mugshot’ of its
target virus and it would investigate each virus,reading their genetic material and
decide to cut them if they happen to be the target.Using this same process,scientists
have found a way to manipulate the CRISPR to cut ‘bad’ genes out of a DNA.This
means that the ‘mugshot’ of the target gene is going to be programmed on to the
CRISPR memory and the tool will cut the gene out of the DNA.After this is done,the
DNA is said to have repair enzymes that will help to fix breaks in the DNA strand,
replacing the space with a ‘good’ gene.This will essentially provide a greater possibility
in fixing genetic diseases such as Hemophilia.