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Andrea Garcia

Professor Zolot

ENC2135

11 March 2022

The Complexity of CRISPR-Cas9

Introduction

As science continues to impress the public, another addition to this discipline is gene

editing, more specifically, CRISPR-Cas9. Soon after our discovery of the double helix structure

in the 1950s, gene editing was proposed ever since, but wasn’t pursued and introduced to the

public until 2012. Short for, “Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats,” this

advanced form of altering the molecular makeup of genomes has inspired newly found ideas that

can transpire in the near future, due to our developed familiarity with this tool. Alongside

altering sequences linked to diseases, CRISPR-Cas9 has the potential to affect more than just

human beings, but rather other organisms in our environment. Within agriculture and animals,

scientists are conducting experiments to evolve plants to be resistant to diseases alongside

droughts. As there are many aspects of CRISPR-Cas9 including its controversies, developments,

applications, and future, I will be rhetorically analyzing two distinct artifacts that reflect some of

these components on how to, essentially, hack genes.

Analysis of First Artifact

The first artifact is an educational infographic called, “CRISPR,” published through

BioTechniques, which is recognized as an, “International Journal of Life Sciences Network.”

Focusing on advancements in technology within the molecular world, this journal strives to
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inform their audience of the latest developments through peer reviewed interviews, data, and

articles. This digital piece touches on subtopics relating to CRISPR including, key trends as a

research tool, challenges, and the future of gene editing. Additionally, through various images

and data, we find that this specific artifact is catered to a more advanced, experienced knowledge

of CRISPR as it is consistent with an existing comprehension of genome alteration. In this

infographic, there is mention of how CRISPR is used for gene knockout, mutation corrections,

pathogen diagnostics and other uses amongst biological science. Amongst the uses, there is also

data considering the challenges that contains editing efficiency/accuracy, delivery, and off-target

effects. All of these variables coexist with data alongside them and are expressed through charts

or diagrams.

Despite the many visual aids to keep the audience immersed within the deep semantics of

CRISPR, this infographic carries a professional tone throughout its entirety. With many

subheadings and deliberate sections, the organization makes it transparent to pinpoint a certain

concept and makes it accessible to its readers. This candid tone helps to appeal to those that are

within the science discipline and are educated on this topic, which targets their specific audience.

Due to the experienced readers, the piece’s exigence is to further educate their readers and

introduce statistically backed numbers that showcase the challenges of CRISPR amongst its uses

and its frequency in a certain line of work. Logos and ethos are the most prominent rhetorical

devices used as it is about logic and credibility. Readers are able to fully understand the

reliability of the artifact because it is cited throughout the infographic and is very evidence

based. Regarding logos, there are many statistics to further prove the reliability and approach of

this piece, which is to present the complexity of CRISPR with ethics, economics, and others.

Through percentages and population, readers are able to grasp the infographic’s continual use of
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numbers. The constraints to this artifact include the limitations of space as well as its compact

use of text. Due to this, expanding on a certain topic is difficult as it disregards the purpose of an

infographic. Not to mention that the audience is very narrow, which makes the information

provided catered to certain, professional individuals, and not to those that are anticipating an

introduction of CRISPR-Cas9. However, the accessibility of obtaining this piece is simple, as it

is digital, but it is, overall, concise and straightforward in its manner.

Analysis of Second Artifact

The Journal of the American Medical Association is a highly credible journal that focuses

on the many branches of medicine including surgery, cardiology, internal medicine and many

more. The articles that are published are all original pieces of information that have been

peer-reviewed by professionals. In this specific article, “Gene Editing Using CRISPR: Why the

Excitement?” Komaroff explains why there has been a recent wave of excitement for CRISPR

and how it could potentially change the medical fields in various ways. Dedicated to informing

an audience of what CRISPR is, including its influence upon different environments, there is a

great amount of information to fully transform an individual's comprehension. While informing

readers of its discovery, the dangers that come with the distribution, the proposed limitations, and

its influence on medical professionals, there is a wide array of information to fully understand

the infrastructure and build knowledge. The purpose of this article is more informative, than

persuasion as it targets those that are naive to this topic. Komaroff continues throughout this

article, formally, while crediting many of the experiments and challenges with this new tool.

Most of this article appeals to the ethos, as it maintains constant references and sources to

experiments, statistics, and data. Additionally, Komaroff graduated from Harvard University and
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has, since then, been an acclaimed physician and publisher. He has researched interests from

chronic fatigue to herpesviruses, solidifying his credibility. Komaroff begins his article with

introducing the topic of gene editing and dedicating a paragraph to expanding the concept of

CRISPR, assuming that his audience has no previous knowledge. Komaroff states,

“Recombinant DNA technology allowed particular genes to be inserted into a plasmid (a circle

of DNA) or into a virus: bacterial and yeast cells now could produce therapeutically useful

human proteins, and viral vectors could perform gene therapy in humans,” (699-700). Through

defining CRISPR and what it does, it leads him into introducing the limitations, controversies,

and future of CRISPR-Cas9 in medical practice and biological research. While Komaroff’s main

objective towards his audience is to display the many factors of genome alteration, he does so in

a manner that can be understood from a wide variety of readers. By appealing to logos including

his mention of an experiment on mice, alzhemiers, and lyme disease, readers are able to gain a

deeper understanding and reliability within this article. This further shows, that he produced his

article in hopes of his audience understanding a full rundown, including its negativism received,

positive views, and capabilities.

Comparison of Two Artifacts

While these pieces are symmetric in the fact of educating their readers on beyond gene

altering and its meaning, they differ in their execution as well as their elaboration. Within the

infographic, due to the constraint of space, there is a presumed knowledge for the readers to

already have an understanding of what CRISPR-Cas9 is. Additionally, this infographic is more

of a visual piece and can be tailored to a younger audience and is less detailed. While it displays

a great amount of logos, this narrows its audience, while still wanting to inform the public on
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CRISPR’s influence on different regions. With the lack of text used in this piece, there may be

less understanding and grasp on this topic, compared to the article that is fully text and depends

on language only. In the article, Komaroff was able to include almost all the information of what

the first artifact contained, and add to it. The audiences differ as well, due to the elaboration in,

“Gene Editing Using CRISPR: Why the Excitement?,” readers are able to understand more

difficult topics or ones that are in need of a basic understanding, due his advantage of its

medium. While these both accomplish their claim of wanting to expand on the idea of genome

editing, they diverge paths when it comes to modes, audience, and constraints. Both of these

artifacts are able to rhetorically appeal to ethos and logos, in their own ways, but lack pathos, due

to the education genre that they engage in.

Conclusion

Despite these artifacts being visually different, they are able to accomplish their claims,

while providing insight amongst their pieces. There are many limitations and expectations when

it comes to different mediums used to inform the public or persuade; however both of these

artifacts were able to use their own approach in order to arrive at the same conclusion. Within the

infographic, one is able to learn more about the technicalities of CRISPR-Cas9, that the article

failed to mention. When comparing these two, it seems as though, clearly, an article will better

educate on a topic, but audiences and constraints are variables that are important to be accounted

for. Through the article alone, individuals with little to knowledge can grasp CRISPR in its

entirety, while the infographic is tailored for a more advanced understanding. Though different in

their approach, both of these artifacts are able to accomplish their intentions. For the article,

specifically, touching on the evolution of gene editing, how it works in living organisms, its
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discovery and more was critical to educating on all the different elements. Regarding the

infographic, focusing on its key trends, design tools, challenges, and others was another way of

informing its audiences on its impression in different environments. Though different in their

approach, both of these artifacts successfully integrated rhetorical appeals in order to educate

their readers in different forms and aspects of CRISPR-Cas9.

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Works Cited

CRISPR infographic. BioTechniques. (2020, August 5).

https://www.biotechniques.com/crispr/crispr-infographic/.

Komaroff, A.L. (2017). Gene Editing Using CRISPR: Why The Excitement? JAMA : The

Journal Of The American Medical Association, 318(8), 699–700.