http://lifemag.org/article/now-trending-crisprNearly everyone has heard references to the “genetic code,” a metaphor for the series of nucleotide bases that makes each of us unique. Many diseases, such as cystic fibrosis and sickle-cell anemia, are caused by point mutations, single digit errors in a series of roughly three billion. Although we have made great progress in understanding these diseases, as of yet there exists no cure. But what if it were as easy for scientists to edit a patient’s genome as it is for programmers to edit computer code? Thanks to technology developed over the past three years, this may soon be possible. Enter CRISPR. This new, powerful technology has been in the media a lot recently for its potential to cure everything from hemophilia to sickle-cell to cystic fibrosis. It is being tested for its potential to prevent the spread of HIV and other infectious diseases and to counteract the molecular pathways involved in aging. CRISPR has been lauded as a way to improve agriculture and even bring woolly mammoths back from the dead. What is this new technology, which promises so much for the future of humanity?
CRISPR is shaking up gene therapy by providing a faster and easier method of editing the human genome. For as little as $30 and with minimal specialized training, scientists can remove or insert sequences of bases, potentially ridding a patient of a pre-existing genetic condition. The powerful and highly democratic nature of this technology is a huge leap forward for biomedical research, and has understandably generated a great deal of excitement. CRISPR’s potential is so wide-ranging, in fact, that many leading biologists are calling for researchers to slow down in their use of this software until its implications are fully understood.
