Gene Editing Research Paper

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Hey! It’s me, Christopher, streaming live from The Guardian! I know, I know; it’s already January 15, so I’m sure you’re wondering what today’s tantalizing topic is. Well, today I’m going to be informing you about Gene Editing-Rewriting the Code of Life. So let’s start with some basic background information. Each and every one of our bodies is made up of a chemical called DNA; simply it is the coding telling us to how to grow, live, and function. A gene is a small section of a DNA strand and these are what are inherited from your parents to determine your appearance. They are our body’s ‘biological templates’ to create proteins and enzymes to construct tissues and organs. Get this: humans have around 24,000 genes in them! Unfortunately, some …show more content…

But wait! That’s definitely not all! Gene editing can do much, much more. It has already been used to actually modify patient’s immune cells to fight cancer or resist HIV infection. Researchers are also using gene editing to alter pig organs to make them safe to transplant into humans. Not only could gene editing be a huge step to treating various diseases, but it is also positively affecting the agriculture industry. It is a much quicker, cheaper alternative to conventional genetic modification-one that allows producers to perk up their crops without using genes from other organisms. Researchers have created seedless tomatoes, gluten-free wheat, and mushrooms that don’t turn brown with age. You’ve heard all the mind-boggling things it can do, so now I’m sure you’re wondering just how will it do these things? It is done using a molecular tool called Crispr-Cas9 and what it is does is it takes a guide molecule (otherwise known as the Crispr part) to find an exact area in an organism’s DNA and then cuts it with an enzyme (otherwise known as the Cas9 bit). The cell tries to fix the damage, which successfully turns the diseased gene

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