Examining CRISPR-Cas9: A Primer for “A Programmable Dual-RNA-Guided DNA Endonuclease in Adaptive Bacterial Immunity.”
Patrick Fehrenbach
Abstract
Genome editing has the potential to transform the way we approach science and medicine. Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat-Cas9 (CRISPR-Cas9), a new genome editing technique, has lowered the cost while increasing the specificity and simplicity of genome editing. This new method could drastically change how we treat and cure many different types of human diseases and disorders by correcting mistakes in human genes. The paper by Jinek and colleagues, “A Programmable Dual-RNA-Guided DNA Endonuclease in Adaptive Bacterial Immunity”, was the first to describe the functions of all the molecular components in the Cas9 complex and build a RNA that could be used by the complex for genome editing (Jinek et al., 2012). This primer will discuss the Jinek paper in order to provide baseline knowledge on CRISPR-Cas9 and help further understand why this method is causing a revolution in biology and disease treatment.
