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Introduction Genome editing enables DNA of a living organism to be replaced inserted or deleted via a process of gene engineering Ledford H 2015 It is a group of technologies that enables DNA to be altered by inserting or deleting a particular component of the genome Molteni M 2017 The outcome of genome editing is that an organism's genome can change by introducing a new function or altering a mutation in the gene Genome editing technology has been researched since the late 1970 s and the technology has facilitated research organizations and drug discovery companies in finding optimised solutions for treating diseases Molecular biologists have been researching cellular repair processes to modify genetic material through genome editing There are a few gene editing methods such as CRISPR Cas9 ZFNs and TALENs For the sake of this essay we will be focussing on the CRISPR Cas9 method The CRISPR technology allows geneticists to alter DNA sequences and adjust gene functions Vidyasagar A 2017 Since 2015 CRISPR technology has been the preferred approach for gene editing as it has great accuracy is a relatively simple method and compared to other techniques is more efficient and has lower costs Comley J 2016 Due to these factors the CRISPR technology is attractive for molecular biologists in the lab Applications such as improving genetic defects and preventing the spread of diseases are potential benefits of the new gene editing technology In special regards to pharmaceutics in medicine technological developments as CRISPR allow diseases such as leukaemia and AIDS to be cured The scientific advancement of CRISPR technology also allows geneticists to alter human embryos by means of attempting to fix disease caused mutations in the hope of preventing genetic disorders Wilgar H 2017 The ongoing debate into genome editing in human embryos deals with the question to what extent gene modification can be justified
