CRISPR - genetic engineering has arrived

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The ability to precisely alter, delete and rearrange the DNA of any living organism, including humans - once the realm of science fiction or futurists it has become a reality with the development of the biotechnology known as CRISPR or in its extended form, CRISPR-Cas9. The non abbreviated version is 'clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats' with the Cas9 part referring to a particular enzyme. CRISPR has a number of existing and potential applications such as:

• disease control and discovering the DNA sequences for viruses, thus opening the way for new treatments.
• influencing ecology by introducing disease-resistant genes into wild populations of parasitic insects reducing pathogen transmission to humans.
• adding climate and pest resistant characteristics into food crops.
• editing hereditary disease susceptible genes in humans.

CRISPR operates by using a cellular scalpel, an enzyme Cas9, to cut DNA. The enzyme is guided to its destination by a RNA guide that ensures that Cas9 cuts out the target nucleotides of DNA allowing the insertion of a different chain of nucleotides which were included in the CRISPR package. The potential changes as a result of this biotechnology are profound and in many cases hard to accurately foresee. Vectors for diseases could be genetically altered and rendered harmless (such as mosquitoes), food crops could be made climate change and pest resistant, threatened species of animals could be made hardier to survive and human hereditary health conditions prevented.

There are also dangers with this biotechnology - the risk of the unknown: for example, inadvertently shifting viruses and other pathogens from one species to another thus creating diseases for which there is no known protection or treatment. But will the advantages gained outweigh the risks ?