CRISPR is in the news lately for being revolutionary.
But what actually is it?
In our body, there are trillions of cells. Deep inside these cells, there are genes and DNA.
It's like a very long instruction manual.
It contains every information from our hair color to our behavior.
But sometimes it can have errors, causing many diseases.
But don't worry. There's a solution for that and it is-
CRISPR!
But how does it work?
Since the beginning of life, phages and bacterias are fighting.
Phages insert their DNA to attack them,
killing about 40% of the whole population.
Those who survive save a part of the phages DNA in a library type system called CRISPR.
The colorful ones belongs to different types of phages
and the black is from the CRISPR system.
When phages attack again, the RNA polymerase quickly make a RNA copy of the DNA.
The required part is send to a protein called Cas9.
Cas9 keeps it along with tracrRNA.
Now the Cas9 is ready for hunting.
This Cas9 will stroll through the (foreign)DNA and stick to a a thing called PAM and start its inquiry.
Then Cas9 unzips and check it.
If it matches, it cuts the DNA, making it inactive.
Researchers thought of using this same method to cut any gene of any cell.
They jointed the crRNA and tracrRNA together to make a sgRNA.
They also made a a plasmid of the whole thing to insert it into target cells.
A DNA can be repaired in two ways.
After cutting the DNA, it tries to repair itself in a error prone way.
Or you can send a repair template to fix it properly.
Why is it revolutionary?
It takes weeks instead of years,
99% cheaper and more accurate than any other previous method.
It can turn on or off any gene.
It's a hope to cure HIV, cancer and genetic diseases.
It can design babies before birth.
But it can also make mistakes which can cause permanent damage to a species.
So, should we use this powerful but dangerous weapon? Now that's a question to consider.
And thanks for watching.
