CRISPR - Gene Editing

Introduction

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats. That is the full name of

CRISPR. If you’re wondering what does this long abbreviation even mean? CRISPR is an

important Biotechnology tool that is being used now and even more so in the future! CRISPR is

being used as a base gene editing tool. “technology that research scientists use to selectively

modify the DNA of living organisms.” (NHGRI) Gene editing is something that will continue to

grow in the future as it is being researched thoroughly.

How Does This Work?

Putting the process of CRISPR into simple terms. DNA is cut precisely and then while

the DNA is trying to repair itself, it is being modified. There are two components in this system,

the Cas9 enzyme and a guide RNA. Cas9 is used to cut the DNA while guide RNA recognizes

the sequence of the DNA while it’s being modified. Using guide RNA to find the correct

sequence of the genome that needs to be changed. Then Cas9 is placed onto the sequence and

changes it by either removing it and replacing it or by inserting itself. Using this method of gene

editing and researching more on it will help scientists use this for curing diseases and help

advance civilization.

Potential

The potential of this phenomenal biotech method is unlimited. There's so much that can

be done if there were lots of time, money and effort invested in this. So far there are two ways

that CRISPR can be used into good; Cell Therapy and Cell Disease. “Cell therapies: Engineering

the next generation of cell therapies that can address an array of diseases” (CRISPR

Therapeutics) This can treat many people that are in need of cell therapy. “Genetic diseases:

Targeting specific genes that cause or influence the course of a disease” (CRISPR Therapeutics)

This here are just two ways to use CRISPR, the sky's the limit with this product.

So many people can be helped in the world. Diseases like sickle cell disease, β-thalassemia, and

hemophilia are just some that can be treated effectively with CRISPR.

Risks and Harms

There were some risks found in studies done by Boston Children’s–led study.

Researchers led by Roberto Chiarle, MD, and Jianli Tao, PhD, in the Department of Pathology .

They found that when performing CRISPR there is a chance of having an increased large
rearrangement of your DNA. “Chiarle, Tao, and colleagues showed that the double-strand DNA

breaks that CRISPR introduces can cause mobile elements to insert at the spots CRISPR was

meant to target as well as at other unintended locations.” (BCH) This risk can be very dangerous

for a person because it can effectively change someone's DNA negatively.

CRISPR was first found in Japan on a bacteria in 1987. Back then it was much harder to

study DNA sequences because of the technology back then. So they weren’t doing much with

this new discovery. They didn’t even know much about where it came from! As the years went

by and there was more research within this, the field of CRISPR and gene editing just grew.

Because this product is so new, there's obviously going to be some mistakes and failures. Faults

like inaccurate editing, incomplete editing, or off-target editing that can completely change

someone's DNA and potentially harm the patient.

My Opinion

In my opinion, despite there being some failures within CRISPR. I fully believe that they

should continue doing research on gene editing. Because the outcome and prize of this can be the

answer to many questions and problems. If anything they should try to limit experimenting on

humans and find the closest animal DNA sequence there is to a human. I fully support this.
Citation

Adli, M. (2018, May 15). The CRISPR tool kit for genome editing and beyond. Nature

News. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-04252-2

CRISPR. Genome.gov. (n.d.). https://www.genome.gov/genetics-glossary/CRISPR

Fliesler, N. (2022, December 15). CRISPR gene editing carries a potential risk, study

finds. Boston Children’s Answers.

https://answers.childrenshospital.org/crispr-gene-editing/

Gene editing. CRISPR Therapeutics. (n.d.). https://crisprtx.com/gene-editing

Rasul, M. F., Hussen, B. M., Salihi, A., Ismael, B. S., Jalal, P. J., Zanichelli, A., Jamali,

E., Baniahmad, A., Ghafouri-Fard, S., Basiri, A., & Taheri, M. (2022,

March 3). Strategies to overcome the main challenges of the use of

CRISPR/Cas9 as a replacement for cancer therapy - molecular cancer.

BioMed Central.

https://molecular-cancer.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12943-021-

01487-4#:~:text=These%20drawbacks%20include%20a%20lack,lines%2

0have%20revealed%20these%20limitations.

U.S. National Library of Medicine. (n.d.). What are genome editing and CRISPR-Cas9?:

Medlineplus Genetics. MedlinePlus.

https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/understanding/genomicresearch/genomee

diting/