CRISPR Cas 9: A step towards mutants?
As a child I watched and loved the X-Men series of films and would often think of humans could possess supernatural powers by having certain changes in their cell structure. Well, we are no where near developing humans with supernatural powers, Yet genetic engineering has made some great technological advancements that can be a boon for humanity. One of these is CRISPR. CRISPR is a technology that has been developed to edit genes ! Yup, you heard it right. The essence of CRISPR is simple: it’s a way of finding a specific bit of DNA inside a cell. After that, the next step in CRISPR gene editing is usually to alter that piece of DNA. However, CRISPR has also been adapted to do other things too, such as turning genes on or off without altering their sequence. There were ways to edit the genomes of some plants and animals before the CRISPR method was unveiled in 2012 but it took years and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. CRISPR has made it cheap and easy. Use of CRISPR is already wi...