The possibility of being capable of changing the human genome to prevent or treat devastating illnesses and serious inherited diseases has always being in the mind of many people and scientists. However, two important events may contribute to make this idea a reality in the near future. One is the decoding of human genome. This has allow scientists the opportunity to comprehend how the genetic information controls the growth, configuration and function of the human body; and at the same time, to understand how variations within our DNA sequence cause diseases. The other, is the use of CRISPR, a technology for editing DNA.
In nature, bacteria have a mechanism of an acquired immune system that allow them to cut section of virus DNA and incorporate it into its own, which will protect them from future viral infection. When bacteria identify the presence of a virus, they create two type of short RNA. One of them encloses a sequence that matches the one of the virus. The two RNA form a complex with a protein called Cas-9, an enzyme that can cut DNA. When the guided RNA or matching sequence, find its objective within the virus genome, Cas-9 cut the target DNA and …show more content…
One of the biggest problem of using CRISPR is that it can introduce off-target effects or change bits of the genome far from where scientists had intended. Any human embryo alter with CRISPR today would carry the risk that its genome had been changed in unexpected ways. Consequently, this technique will require a large number of stem cell in order to obtain the desirable genetic changes and carefully study and check for mistakes before producing an egg. For this reason, it is this experiments should be done in animals first and once all the problems associated with this technique are solve, maybe they can think about safely and responsible perform them in human cells
In nature, bacteria have a mechanism of an acquired immune system that allow them to cut section of virus DNA and incorporate it into its own, which will protect them from future viral infection. When bacteria identify the presence of a virus, they create two type of short RNA. One of them encloses a sequence that matches the one of the virus. The two RNA form a complex with a protein called Cas-9, an enzyme that can cut DNA. When the guided RNA or matching sequence, find its objective within the virus genome, Cas-9 cut the target DNA and …show more content…
One of the biggest problem of using CRISPR is that it can introduce off-target effects or change bits of the genome far from where scientists had intended. Any human embryo alter with CRISPR today would carry the risk that its genome had been changed in unexpected ways. Consequently, this technique will require a large number of stem cell in order to obtain the desirable genetic changes and carefully study and check for mistakes before producing an egg. For this reason, it is this experiments should be done in animals first and once all the problems associated with this technique are solve, maybe they can think about safely and responsible perform them in human cells