Intro to Gene Editing: Why it Will Be The Next Big Thing

In 1973, there was a major breakthrough in technology. The cellphone was invented. Back then, we didn’t even know that it would be the world's biggest breakthrough in technology. We didn’t even know if it will be used a lot. That’s enough for the history lesson, now fast forward to today; over 5 billion people have a mobile phone, and we use it every single day. The crazy thing is, people did not even predict that this would happen but it did. I think that Genetic Engineering will be the next big thing, and in this article, I will go deep into Gene Editing, how it works, and awesome applications/purposes. But before we do any of that, let's dive deeper into the basics…

The Basics

Before we go into the exciting stuff, we first need to understand the basics. We need to understand the human genome. Yes, the thing that makes up every living thing on the planet.

The Genome: Genomes hold thousands of genes in our body. Genomes play a huge role in determining our appearance, and our traits. Different sequence changes in our genes can determine if we have freckles, what color eye we have, lactose levels, and even if we are colorblind. From here, we can already start to see some problems we can solve with gene editing! For example, we can solve colorblindness, and lactose intolerance and this is only the basics. The craziest part is, we can also determine what types of genetic diseases and cancer we have!

Nucleic Acids:

Nucleic Acids are technically the building blocks of living things. People may say that DNA is the one and the only building block of life and yes, they are correct. DNA, also known as deoxyribonucleic acid is a type of Nucleic Acid, but DNA isn’t the only type of Nucleic Acid. There is also ribonucleic acid, or more generally known as RNA. Think of DNA as a blueprint. It contains and collects all the information for cells to grow, function, and replicate itself. The RNA carries out the instructions and it copies the DNA so they make proteins for our body. It copies the codes from the DNA so the RNA ensures that they are making the right proteins for our body.

Now since we are all done with the basics, let's dive into gene editing, how it works, and super cool applications!

CRISPR-Cas9

Every living thing is defined by its genes. CRISPR is the fastest, easiest, and most cost-efficient gene-editing tool. CRISPR uses 2 main components. The first component would obviously be CRISPR itself. The second component is the Cas9. Cas9 is a protein that acts like scouts over the pieces of DNA in bacteria, latching onto free-floating DNA. These scouts look for virus matches so if a virus invades the bacterium, the Cas9 will detect it and quickly destroy it. CRISPR has always been in your body and in 2012, Scientists figured out how to hijack the CRISPR in your body not just to target viral DNA but any time of DNA too including human DNA. This is how genetic engineering was first discovered. So how does all of this amazing stuff even work? Scientists design a guide RNA, also known as sgRNA, so they can match the gene they want to edit. After that, they attach it to Cas9 where it is taken to the host. This happens when the Cas9 Protein is activated, as it immediately searches for a target DNA sequence. The host can be any living organism since they all have genes. The guide RNA will be injected into the host and it will snip off a gene and replace it. With this technology, Scientists can practically edit any gene they want.

Applications of Gene Editing

Gene editing has so many awesome applications that solve so many different problems in the world. Here are three different applications that I think are the most important.

• Genetic Diseases: CRISPR Cas9 can cure genetic diseases completely. Examples of genetic diseases are Sickle Cell Anemia, Thalassemia, Down Syndromes, Cystic Fibrosis, and so many more terrible diseases that can kill people. Genetic engineering can save lives and solve some of the world’s biggest problems including cancer and the spread of viruses.
• Superfoods: With CRISPR Cas9, we can modify the nutrition of any type of food. This way, we can create superfoods! For example, scientists genetically modified berries in order to have a different taste to your preference, or to have more protein and nutrition.
• Designer Babies: Designer Babies refers to one whose genetic makeup has been altered to provide a specific or desired genome. The crazy thing is, we can use this type of technology to create superpowered children for the next generation!

Gene editing can be used for so many more awesome things, but these are the most important applications. There must be a reason why we are not using this already, and this is what leads to the main and most dangerous downside of gene editing.

The Downsides in Gene Editing

DNA Mutations; The most dangerous and important downside of genetic engineering. Let's dive deeper into DNA mutations, how they are repaired, and what the outcomes are.

Did you know that your DNA in your cells gets damaged over tens of thousands of times a day, and more than over a trillion cells are in your body? DNA damages cause deadly diseases including cancer. Types of DNA Damage includes nucleotides getting damaged, or getting matched with a wrong pair causing DNA Mutations. Different enzymes have a specific task to do when it comes to DNA Repairing. These enzymes are called DNA Polymerase. These types of enzymes bring the right pair of partners for every DNA base:

Adenine <> Thymine

Guanine <> Cytosine

Mismatches are not the only type of Mutations. Lots of different molecules can cause chemical changes to your DNA too! Some of these come from environmental exposure, for example, chemicals in tobacco smoke. This is also fixed by certain enzymes. Sometimes, specific chemical damage has special DNA enzymes for that specific mutation. Radiation like gamma rays, x-rays, and UV rays cause extreme damage to your DNA where more than one enzyme needs to group together to replace a certain part in the DNA. This is why people say that being exposed to a lot of radiation can damage and kill cells in your body. What they are saying is 100% true, and this leads to double-strand breaks.

Double Strand Breaks are the most dangerous type of mutation. One double-strand break can cause cell death, and even worse, cancer! The process in which these are repaired is called Homologous Recombination. Wow, those are pretty long words! Homologous Recombination is a process that uses a section of undamaged DNA as a template for repairing.

Enzymes get them to exchange sequences of nucleotides to fill in the missing gaps. A process called Non-Homologous End Joining does not use a template, however; a series of proteins trim off a few nucleotides and fuses the broken ends of the damaged DNA together to form a fixed DNA. This process isn’t as accurate because it can cause genes to get mixed up. All of these types of DNA mutations, like mismatches, and double-strand breaks, are the main and most dangerous downsides in gene editing. This is why we are not able to use it to its fullest today.

I can say that gene editing will be the next big thing. Ranging from curing cancer, all the way to superfoods, I think that this will solve so many big problems, and impact billions of lives for the better.

What I find super fascinating is that all cancer, viruses, and genetic diseases can be cured with this technology, CRISPR-Cas9. I am almost certain that our generation will use this technology for the better to solve some of the world's biggest problems. Now think about it; There are so many breakthrough technologies and inventions that completely changed our lives. For example, without electricity and energy, I wouldn’t have been able to write this article in the first place. Without a vaccine for terrible diseases, we would probably all be living an unhealthy life, or maybe we wouldn’t be alive right now…

Hey guys! My name is Sambhav, and I am a 13-year-old tech enthusiast who is super interested in Machine Learning, Web Development, and Genetic Engineering. Claps would always be appreciated! 🙂