According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, bio-engineering is “the application of biological techniques, such as genetic recombination, to create modified versions of organisms, such as crops.” A discovery in this field has made a recent uproar giving us new bounds in being able to edit DNA. While this discovery is not new it is being put to a new use. Bio-engineering has put to use the CRISPR/CAS system. CRISPR stands for, "clustered regularly inter-spaced short palindromic repeats" (Zhang). Now, for those of us that do not speak mad scientist, this means segments of DNA are repeated and separated by smaller segments called spacers. CRISPR is actually a sort of immune system of a bacteria cell (Zhang). With the help of the cell’s protein producing CAS DNA, this system is able to eliminate viruses from the cell. The system is also able copy the DNA from unknown viruses and insert it into the cells DNA in order to make the cell immune to said virus.
Scientists first discovered this system almost 30 years ago. However, it has not been put to use in the bioengineering field up until recently. The system that is being used today to edit DNA has been a long time in the making. However, when scientist Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier found a way to simplify this “cut and paste” tool it allowed for its true potential to be seen. Doudna and Charpentier were able to combine two forms of RNA from the CRISPR system of the bacteria cell to create a synthetic guide that is now able to be used as a genetic manipulator (Broad Institute). This single guide is called the CAS-9 protein.
While science has shown us other ways in which genetic manipulation can be done, these being Zinc Finger Nucleases and TALENs, they are methods that I would prefer not to get into. CRISPR requires much less effort and is a seemingly easier and more universal method.
With the use of CRISPR, scientists are researching new ways to cure diseases and genetic disorders. Currently, the leading scientist in this research is a biologist named Feng Zhang (Begley). Feng Zhang, a man of only 34 years of age, was the first to harvest the CRISPR/CAS-9 system in order to be used in genome editing (Broad Institute). With this new technique finally being harnessed, we are able to apply it to organisms to edit and eliminate harmful mutations from the genome. The CRISPR system has become such a useful and accomplished tool that an ethics debate has sparked (Begley). The topic of this debate is what we should and should not do with this new found technology.
By using the CRISPR system, humanity will hopefully be able to find ways to cure the many plagues that haunt us. It could be soon that we will be able to cure many of the diseases that end our lives and we may also be able to find ways to reduce world hunger. This can be accomplished by engineering crops that can produce higher yields or grow in harsher climates. In the present, just about any form of genetic manipulation is using the CRISPR system. The uses are limitless, the expectations are high and we may soon see a world with less suffering in it, all thanks to the use of the CRISPR system.
