14 Revel Magazine01 Revel MagazineGeneEditingand theDevelopmentofCRISPRBy: Kelly Galten
The Science to English2019 / 20202019 202015042Translation:Clustered Regular Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat,or CRISPR, is a relatively new development ingene editing work. It is a far quicker and more precisemethod of gene editing than its predecessors. Bothprevious methods (Zinc Finger Nucleases and TranscriptionActivator-Like Effector Nucleases) requirethe extremely difficult process of designing customproteins. The current iteration (CRISPER-Cas9) wasco-discovered by Dr. Jennifer Doudna of UC Berkeley,along with Emmanuele Charpentier of France.The CRISPR process is fairly complex, but can be explainedsimply. Take a bacteria and its DNA. Bacteriacan contract viral infections just like humans; thus,they would benefit from a boost in genetic immunity.The invading virus is analyzed and a specific piece ofrepeating DNA is taken. This CRISPR gene is thenedited into the DNA in the bacteria, and convertedinto RNA. This essentially gives the bacteria a copyof the virus’s DNA and enables it to recognize andfight the virus. The whole process is similar to writinga sentence in pencil, then erasing it and writing itagain with stronger vocabulary. While the entire processis far more involved, specific, and complicated, atthat level the scientific terms and phrases become sothick as to resemble mud. Having lived with two Biologymajors, this assertion is made from experience.The CRISPR process has permeated the scientific,medical, and industrial world with increasing speed.Many areas of the human experience can be alteredand improved with this advancement. Running withthe bacteria example; bacteria play a huge role inmany foodstuffs: yogurt, cheese, sourdough bread,etc. By implementing CRISPR technology, producersof these goods can ensure that their much neededbacterial investments are protected from viral infections.In the world of white coats and big words, CRISPRis helping fight disease, and perhaps even cancer. Inmedical communities, CRISPR is developing quicklyand with some concerns. Most applications focus onthe technology’s ability to prevent disease and buildimmunity. According to an NPR article, a study at theUniversity of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia is currentlylooking into using CRISPR to battle cancer; “Thehope is the modified cells will target and destroy cancercells.” Other hopeful CRISPR uses include fightingsickle cell disease, blood infections, and inheritedforms of blindness.In November 2018, a Chinese scientist named HeJainkui announced he had edited the genes of a pairof newborn twins while they were in the embryo state.Their father is HIV positive, and the radical editingwas claimed to have removed the gene for hereditarypassing of HIV to the twins. As reported by CBSNews, Jainkui and his fellow researchers’ attempt “toimmunize the twins against HIV may have failed inits purpose and created unintended mutations.” Asof December 30, 2019, Dr. Jainkui was sentenced bya Chinese court to three years imprisonment and afine of three million yuan for “illegally carrying outthe human embryo gene-editing intended for reproduction.”A study by scientists at UC Berkeley foundthat the specific gene the Chinese operation focusedon, CC5, actually increased the rate of mortality significantlyafter Jainkui’s editing. Variation in CC5 canresult in higher vulnerability to West Nile virus andinfluenza, the latter of which Nielsson points to for anexplanation of higher chances of death. Nielsson toldNPR, “There are many reasons not to make CRIS-PR babies at this stage. And one of them is the factthat we can’t really predict the effect of the mutationsthat we induce.”Other concerns have been raised. According to Sciencein the News at Harvard University, gene editinghad been seen as risky because the process can alterthe organism’s health overall. If the wrong gene is copiedor the implanted DNA begins to attack the wrongcells, serious damage could be wrought. However, theCRISPR process itself helps to dispel these worries;“CRISPR techniques allow scientists to modify specificgenes while sparing all others, thus clarifying theassociation between a given gene and its consequenceto the organism” (Science in the News).The CRISPRtechnology has much further to expand, but where itcan take humanity on the way is potentially limitless.
Change language