Every so often, a tool comes along that completely changes how scientists do their work. CRISPR Cas9 is one of those tools. If you’re unfamiliar, it’s basically a new technique that allows scientists to make specific changes to specific genes in living cells. Such a thing was possible in the past, but the methods were slow and cumbersome, so they weren’t widely adopted, and therefore didn’t have much of an impact on the world.CRISPR-Cas9 is completely different. It’s fast, easy, and is already impacting the world we live in. In the three short years that it’s been around, the technique has enabled scientists to do amazing things: reverse mutations that cause blindness, stop cancer cells from multiplying, and even make cells impervious to the virus that causes AIDS. Biologists have used CRISPR to render wheat invulnerable to killer fungi, and engineer crops that can withstand droughts. The crazy part is that all of this stuff happened within the last couple years. We’ve only scratched the surface of what’s possible with this technique, so you should expect
to see a whole lot more of it in 2016.
0 comments:
Post a Comment