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Overview
Imagine a world where diseases could be cured by editing the DNA. This is an example of what gene editing could provide in the future and it’s not too far-fetched to imagine that happening soon because we may actually live to see this happen.
Gene editing is a new technology that could change the world for better or worse. It has its positives and negatives, but it will certainly have an impact on humanity. Scientists are working hard to make sure there aren’t any negative effects before they use this technology in humans. There are many ethical issues surrounding gene editing, including designer babies and curing diseases through genetic modification.
Big Idea #1: Genetic modifications can occur naturally.
The theory of evolution has been around for a long time. It’s the process by which life on Earth evolved from simple organisms to complex creatures. Scientists have discovered that they can use technology to modify DNA and create new species, just like in nature. One scientist made a breakthrough discovery that led directly to this new era of genetic mastery; she was able to find one patient with an unusual disease caused by a single mistake in her DNA code.
Kim was diagnosed with WHIM in the 1960s, but when scientists observed her again in 2013, she was miraculously symptom-free. They also discovered that Kim’s DNA is completely different than it used to be.
The doctors only found one thing: a cell in Kim’s body exploded, and rearranged the genes. This resulted in a sudden change that cured Kim of her illness.
In other words, nature has unintentionally edited the genome of Kim to her benefit. But what if science could intentionally edit DNA to cure genetic disorders?
Questions about the nature of intelligence have been studied for a long time. You’ll learn all about it in the next key point.
Big Idea #2: Deliberate modifications of DNA, were impractical until a new genetic discovery was made.
Before we dive into the specifics of gene editing, it’s helpful to have a quick refresher on some basic scientific terms. The genome is basically all of our genetic information in our cells. It determines things like your height and susceptibility to disease.
The genome is made up of DNA, which consists of four chemical groups: A, G, C and T. These are the four letters in the genetic language.
From there, the human genome is divided into packages of DNA called chromosomes. These chromosomes contain smaller groups called genes, which are regions of DNA responsible for specific bodily functions. Now that we’ve got that biology lesson out of the way, let’s get back to gene editing and how it works by inserting a virus’s DNA into a bacterial chromosome.
Gene editing started in the 80s, when researchers Mario Capecchi and Oliver Smithies found a way to overwrite defective genes with healthy ones. The technique was only successful 1 out of 100 times though.
During the 1990s and 2000s, other techniques were developed. However, they were too complex to be practically used in clinical settings.
Researchers noticed a pattern in bacterial DNA that they called clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats. It was exactly repeating itself over certain intervals. This led to the development of a technique that is easy and effective enough to be used by people.
Big Idea #3: Research on CRISPR paved the way to the discovery of a DNA cutting machine.
Now that you know what CRISPRs are, let’s look at them in depth. They are regions of bacterial DNA characterized by repeated sequences of genetic material. In between the repeats are similarly-sized pieces of DNA known as spacer sequences. These appear quite frequently in the DNA of bacteria and scientists discovered they match viral DNA when they noticed this phenomenon.
