Have you ever wondered why a plant has a specific color? Have you ever thought if something natural and unchangeable could actually be changed, or possibly improved? Genome Editing makes the impossible now possible! Genome Editing is a way of making specific changes to the DNA of a cell or organism. They cut out the unwanted sequence of DNA and replace it with the desired sequence, making an edit. A gene-editing technology tool called CRISPR-Cas9 was founded in 2012 by American scientist Jennifer Doudna, French scientist Emmanuelle Charpentier, and colleagues and refined by American scientist Feng Zhang. This tool is the most known out of all Genome Editing tools. Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR), is an adaptive immune system that is used for making modification to cells easier. CRISPR was first researched in 1993 by Francisco Mojica. He worked on it in the 1900ś. As of right now, Genome Editing is only being used for research, and is not going to be used on certain subjects. Our world needs Genome Editing because this innovation allows us to research biology in ways we couldn't before, and this has been used to help treat diseases by modifying blood cells. Genome editing also can help crops grow with more resistance to things like droughts. This innovation can change the world and make our world a better place. The inventors were motivated to make this innovation to help our scientists research and learn quicker, and to also allow the ability to alter traits of organisms possible for the help of our crops and health. This innovation is important to the global community because it can help us understand biology better and allows us to modify organisms positively for everyone. In the past it has been used to modify crops to increase their resistance to droughts and disease. Genome Editing has also been used to modify blood cells to help treat diseases including Leukemia and AIDS and could treat other diseases or infections. This innovation will make the world a healthier and better place for everyone and everything to live on. By allowing crops to be less prone to diseases and droughts, more food and oxygen can be produced for the world and its creatures. And not only humans benefit from this, animals rely on plants and other animals to be healthy for their own survival. Finally, By allowing us to understand biology better, we can learn more about cures, treatments, and vaccines at a quicker rate, and possibly ones that we couldn't of learned about in any other way.
All in all, this benefits the health of all organisms, allows certain research easy and possible, and even benefits the jobs of farmers so their crops and animals can survive easier, healthier, and longer. Genome Editing is the future of our crops and our health, and we owe our thanks to it for allowing a better future to be possible.
Works cited
All in all, this benefits the health of all organisms, allows certain research easy and possible, and even benefits the jobs of farmers so their crops and animals can survive easier, healthier, and longer. Genome Editing is the future of our crops and our health, and we owe our thanks to it for allowing a better future to be possible.
Works cited
Fridovich-Keil, Judith L. “Gene Editing.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 4 June 2019, www.britannica.com/science/gene-editing.
“What Is Genome Editing?” Facts, The Public Engagement Team at the Wellcome Genome Campus, 23 Aug. 2017, www.yourgenome.org/facts/what-is-genome-editing.
“CRISPR Timeline.” Broad Institute, 7 Dec. 2018, www.broadinstitute.org/what-broad/areas-focus/project-spotlight/crispr-timeline.
Ran, F Ann, et al. “Genome Engineering Using the CRISPR-Cas9 System.” Nature News, Nature Publishing Group, 24 Oct. 2013, www.nature.com/articles/nprot.2013.143.
You said, "This innovation is important to the global community because it can help us understand biology better and allows us to modify organisms positively for everyone." What organisms are we using genome editing on and what attributes of the organism are they trying to change?
ReplyDeleteHi William! As I said before, Genome Editing is only being used for research right now. Scientists are only experimenting with certain changes instead of completely changing a species. But for example, scientists are trying to modify crops so they have more resistance to droughts, which allows them to survive easier and healthier.
DeleteIn this you talked about many current uses. What are the potentials of this technology? Moreover, what are the dangers? Can modified cells cause negative effects? Could someone use the technology for negative purposes?
ReplyDeleteHi Jacob! Genome Editing has endless potential, and can be experimented on almost anything! And Genome Editing has already been used for research on finding cures, treatments and vaccines for all sorts of different diseases and illnesses. But this technology must only remain in the trained and safe hands of our scientists. This kind of technology can forever change a species or cell in so many ways, including negative ways. Genome Editing is when you replace an attribute of a cell with a new one, making the "edit." This allows you to change specific things that may be critical in a species' survival, and also could make an organism sick depending on the change. Scientists are still researching the capabilities with Genome Editing, and right now are only using this technology for experiments, instead of fully changing a species. I hope this answers your questions or at least makes them a bit clearer!
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