CRISPR - Everything you need to know.

Bacteria Vs. Viruses The war that has been continuing since the dawn of life. Yeah! the minor diseases that you suffer from like Cold, Fever, Stomach ache etc., and the major diseases like, Genetical disorder, HIV/AIDS, Cancer etc., are the result of the fight between Virus and Bacteria.

Let's zoom into the microscopic level and see what's actually going on through out these millions of years. When a virus tries to infect a bacteria, It inserts its own genetic code into the bacteria so that is can use the Bacteria as a factory or take control over the Bacteria. The bacteria tries to resist but fails most of the time because it's protection tools are too weak. But sometimes the bacteria might survive only when it uses it's most effective anti-virus attack. That is bacteria stores the genetic code(that is inserted by the virus) in a Genetic code Archive called CRISPR. When a bacteria gets infected again by another virus, This is where the CAS9 protein which is in the bacteria comes into action. The CAS9 protein acts more like a genetic surgeon. It compares every bit of  DNA code in the bacteria to the DNA code of the virus that had been stored in the Genetic code archive and once found, The CAS9 protein will immediately cut the DNA( that is inserted by the virus).

Whoa! explaining that was hard!! that is a bit cinematic though :-p. So, from what we have discussed till now, "CAS9 is protein within a Bacteria that acts as a molecular tool that can either add or cuts DNA." Not until did the geneticists discovered that this whole process of detection and elimination of DNA is programmable, did they realize that there are a lot of benefits using that process. And they named the process CRISPR. The expanded form of CRISPR is, Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats. Phew! that's a mouthful. That's why we call it CRISPR. Also, after CRISPR was found, The costs of genetic research fell down by 99% and CRISPR is the cheapest way too. It also reduced the time taken for Research from few years to few weeks!

So, "What's the big deal?" with this very technique in a few decades, we will be able to end suffering from diseases, suffering from genetic disorders, also we will be able to Design babies! (you could literally go to a hospital and ask, "I want a kid with 20/20 eye sight, best immune system, and with an IQ greater than Albert Einstein!)  We will be able to cure Cancer or HIV/AIDS with a single injection! and a lot!

Let me just give some practical examples of CRISPR in use,

THE ERADICATION OF MALARIA! yes, you've read it right. Malaria is the most dreadful disease the humans have ever encountered. millions of people die every decade due to Malaria. According to the statistics, at least 5 people might have died(around the world) since you started reading this article! So, how does CRISPR solve this problem? to answer that question we should first know how malaria spreads. Mosquitoes host a parasite called Plasmodium that lives in the salivary gland of mosquito and waits for the mosquito to bite an organism(let's consider humans in this case) and enters into the organism. Firstly it affects the liver, then the Red blood cells and ultimately leads to death. With CRISPR we could make mosquitoes immune to Plasmodium by making slight changes to the mosquito's DNA. And with a genetic technique called "The Gene Drive", we could make 99% of the offsprings of that immune mosquitoes to be immune to Plasmodium. These mosquitoes do exist in laboratories today and yet to be released into the environment. The geneticists and BrainStorming over Whether or not to release the mosquitoes into the environment. 'cause we never know what the consequences are gonna be right?

Also, by just changing a bit of DNA code that is responsible for their color in these rats the geneticists changed white rats into black ones.

Using CRISPR to change the color of an organism.

Coming to the ethical issues, whether or not to use CRISPR because using this technique to its true potential, you would be actually able to Reverse Aging! and editing genes of an Embryo will not only affect that one person but also to all of his descendants. If this technology goes to the wrong hands, the consequences would be catastrophic! Geneticists are in an ethical dilemma whether or not to develop this technique, CRISPR.

Thank you for coming this far. I really appreciate it! This is Anirudh Dasari Signing off...