Three decades ago, interfering with human DNA seemed like science fiction, but today CRISPR-Cas9 has already changed the practice of biomedicine. The tool was borrowed from bacteria: when a microbe encounters a virus, the Cas9 protein cuts its genome precisely along a given \u201caddress line\u201d of RNA. Scientists have adapted this mechanism to cut out defective sections of DNA and insert correct ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
The main advantage of CRISPR is its rare precision for molecular methods: one \u201ccontrol\u201d guide RNA clings to the required fragment of the genome, and Cas9 makes a cut exactly there. Clinical trials of therapies for sickle cell anemia and hereditary blindness are already underway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, ethical and safety issues remain open. Unforeseen mutations, mosaicism \u2014 when not all cells receive the corrected gene \u2014 and the risk of creating \u201cdesigner\u201d babies require strict regulation. It is predicted that in five to seven years, CRISPR could become the standard treatment for a number of monogenic diseases if scientists find ways to minimize side effects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Three decades ago, interfering with human DNA seemed like science fiction, but today CRISPR-Cas9 has already changed the practice of biomedicine. The tool was borrowed from bacteria: when a microbe…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imbrighiri.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imbrighiri.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imbrighiri.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imbrighiri.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imbrighiri.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=122"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/imbrighiri.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128,"href":"https:\/\/imbrighiri.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122\/revisions\/128"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imbrighiri.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imbrighiri.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imbrighiri.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imbrighiri.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}