Washington – A recent study has concluded that CRISPR, a new genome-editing tool can contribute in transforming the field of biology. The study was conducted on genetically engineered human embryos.
Although scientists have been working with the genome decoding for many decades now, CRISPR has become instantly popular because it allows the scientists to conduct the editing with great precision.
The process is getting a lot of favor from the scientists, and the media has created a huge hype about CRISPR because for the first time the scientists have discovered a highly flexible and efficient genome-editing tool.
The early years of experimentation with CRISPR included creating monkeys using targeted mutations for preventing the infection of HIV in human cells.
Last month, the Chinese scientists announced they had successfully applied the CRISPR technique to nonviable human embryos. The new experiment revealed the potential of CRISPR to cure different types of genetic diseases. Many have stipulated that this can be used to produce designer babies, although the process will require decades of research.
Thus, scientists are now considering using CRISPR in most of their genome related researches, and it won’t be long when CRISPR will be replacing the old techniques of gene editing and splicing.
No one Invented CRISPR
Certainly, CRISPR is a much better technique than the older genome-editing tools. But very few people know that the scientists have not invented this tool. Rather, it is naturally –occurring mechanism used by the bacteria to defend and protect them.
The scientists observed a very strange pattern in the genomes of bacteria in the 1980s. In this process, the DNA sequence repeats itself repeatedly forming unique sequences in between the repeats.
This configuration is known as clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR).
CRISPR can Help Eradicate Disease-Causing Mutations
In a report published in the UK Daily Mail, a research fellow at neuroethcis, Oxford University, Christopher Gyngell, has stated that we must use these techniques to eradicate disease-causing mutations. It will considerably help in curing complex genetic diseases.
