There have been some very exciting, recent biological findings involving gene editing. The CRISPR-Cas9 findings allow for the exact and purposeful changes to the genome of a cell. CRISPR stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, and it is used in bacteria and archaea as a way to protect the bacteria from intruding genetic material. Essentially, CRISPR is used to remove a faulty gene and put another in its place. This is exciting because in humans, this technology could be used to remove extremely harmful DNA from our bodies, only to be replaced by healthy DNA. This method could then be used to cure cancer. In fact, another genome editing technology, called TALEN, was actually used to cure  an 11 month old girl named Layla who had what doctors thought was an untreatable form of leukemia. Described as “biological scissors”, doctors editing genes in cells in the immune system. The new genes then hunted down the dangerous red blood cells that were putting Layla’s life at risk. What is so exciting about CRISPR, however, is that unlike TALENS, which used proteins to edit genes in a very time consuming process, CRISPR uses nucleic acids such as RNA, which are significantly easier to use. Ultimately, these findings should bring a lot of good to the world and are a promising step towards curing cancer and other dangerous diseases.CRISPR-Cas9_mode_of_actionImage creator unknown. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CRISPR-Cas9_mode_of_action.png

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