CRISPR-Cas 9

In the past nine years, scientists have figured out how to exploit a quirk in the immune systems of bacteria to edit genes in other organisms — plants, mice, even humans. With CRISPR, they can now make these edits quickly and cheaply, in days rather than weeks or months. The direct definition of CRISPR is: 

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“CRISPR is a segment of genetic material found in the genomes of prokaryotes that consists of repeated short sequences of nucleotides dispersed at regular intervals between unique sequences of nucleotides derived from the DNA of pathogens (such as viruses), which had previously infected the bacteria and that functions to protect the bacteria against future infection by the same pathogens”.

 

Follow this podcast as we make a deep dive into this complex and exciting biological tool, including its applications and impacts in society!

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Shu-Hao Yu, Nour Haydar Ahmad, Ruixin Lu 

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