When microbiologist Emmanuelle Charpentier and RNA expert and biochemist Jennifer Doudna met at a conference in 2011, their shared passion for science led to a profound discovery; a new technique to engineer genomes known as CRISPR-Cas9. The technological and economic revolution that ensued still reverberates through labs around the world. CRISPR-Cas9 has created a seismic shift in how science operates making genome editing fast, flexible, inexpensive and easily accessible to anyone with a modicum of lab equipment. But is CRISPR-Cas9 a bio-hacker revolution or a potential scientific nightmare? Based on a bacterial CRISPR-associated protein-9 nuclease (Cas9) from Streptococcus pyogenes, CRISPR-CAS9 allows researchers to edit parts of a genome, using the same adaptive immune system mechanism bacteria use to recognize viral DNA and trigger its destruction. The CRISPR-CAS9 kit allows sections of DNA sequences to be snipped out and replaced, giving scientists the ability to essentially mutate the DNA. Further complicating the issue are synthetic elements which can now be added to … [Read more...] about Designer DNA: Will CRISPR-Cas 9 Create a BioHacker Revolution or a Nightmare?
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