CRISPR is a technology for changing the
sequence of DNA in cells in a precise
fashion to correct mutations that might
otherwise cause disease. It's going to
enable a lot of science to be done that
was impossible to do in the past.
So the way the CRISPR technology works is by the
action of a protein called cas 9 that
functions like a molecular scale for DNA. The CRISPR cas 9 system has an amazing
ability to recognize a particular DNA
sequence in the cell but maybe not
functioning and then disable it by
cutting the DNA we call this gene
editing and we can use it to disable or
repair a mutated part of the gene which
may be causing disease. For cas 9 to
find a malfunctioning DNA attach it to
an RNA sequences that matches the DNA
sequence we want to edit, then we put
this RNA cas 9 combination into the
cell that finds the new DNA and use the chemical
reaction to cut the DNA strand right of
the spot where it's malfunctioning, after
that we can sometimes insert the correct
version of the gene for the cell to work
properly again
