CRISPR is a new molecule found in Prokaryotic cells that allow these cells to defend against viruses and other harmful organisms that can enter into these kinds of cells. The first scientists to discover CRISPR-Cas9 are from the University of Cambridge, Massachusetts. What this molecules main job in cells is to find the genetic DNA that does not match the hosts and eradicate it. Scientists say that if we can utilize this tool correctly than we can eventually use CRISPR to genetically modify humans to be resistant to diseases like HIV. Later on scientists are even trying to stop the aging process by hundreds of years. Below are some pictures displaying the molecule in action. Below are some pictures demonstration the molecule and the process it uses to eradicate the foreign substance
Before you just automatically down vote this article I will leave my sources from the Original video I got the idea from to write this article.
Original video:
Main Article: http://www.nature.com/news/crispr-gene-editing-is-just-the-beginning-1.19510
CRISPR is not a molecule, it stands for clustered regularly interapaced short palindromic repeats and is the bacterial immune system. It works by storing short segments of foreign genomic material in its 'CRISPR array' and employing those DNA segments and other associated proteins called cas to then go out and cleave the invaders actual DNA. In order to destroy said invader.
It is important to recognize that the bacterial immune system is not like ours, while our invaders are many things, for bacteria they are only viruses and random pieces of DNA. Thus it makes sense that their immune system would only target those Nucleic acids.
Our applications from this stem from a particular subset of the proteins involved in this process, most notably cas9.
Good curating! Not many times I get to say that.
It is interesting to see new technologies emerging that may solve some of our many health problems.