CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing revolutionizes the field of biology
in: Health and Well-Being , Prosperity
CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing is a groundbreaking technology that has had widespread impact on society, from changing the way we combat diseases to improving the foods that we eat. What was originally research into the genetic code of bacteria led to an interesting discovery. Scientists noted strange repeated sequences, which were named clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats, or CRISPR for short. They also discovered that these sequences effectively acted like an immune system, allowing bacteria to “remember” past viral attacks to fight infections in the future. In 2012 biochemists Jennifer Doudna at UC Berkeley and Emmauelle Charpentier showed how to harness CRISPR along with an enzyme known as Cas9 to cut DNA at exact locations. Ever since then, CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology has been adapted to cure diseases, improve crops, and aid in our quest to better understand genetics.
- States: CA , MA
- Organizations: University of California Berkeley , Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Harvard University
- Topics: Biology , Health
- Links and further reading: [ link1 | link2 | link3 | link4 | link5 | link6 ]