What are the most promising (potential) applications of the CRISPR technology?

CRISPR technology has a plethora of applications because of it’s targeted gene-editing technology.

Here are some of the most promising applications of CRISPR technology

1. Genetic screening

CRISPR can be used to find a small number of important genes(Genes in which mutation results in a genetic disease) or genetic sequences within a large number of genetic sequences such as the human genome.

2. Epigenomic editing

The advantage of epigenetic engineering is the ability to change gene expression without causing permanent DNA damage. dCas9, a mutant variety of Cas9 in which the endonuclease activity is removed using point mutations. dCas9 is fused to a variety of epigenetic modifiers to specific loci without inducing double-strand breaks. Effector domains either activate or repress a gene, and they can be easily glued onto dCas9

3. CRISPR mediated live Imaging

Live imaging of cellular genomes can be done using CRISPR. This also employs dCas9. Using catalytically inactive dCas9 fused to fluorescent labels such as GFP, the researchers have turned dCas9 into a customizable DNA label that is compatible with fluorescence microscopy in living cells.

Source: CreativeBiogene

4. Design superior foods

Allergy-free foods can be produced by CRISPR. Milk contains 4 proteins which cause allergy, these are edited using CRISPR.

5. CRISPR CAMERA - The cell recorder

CAMERA - CRISPR-mediated Analogue Multi-Event Recording Apparatus. The tool acts as a recorder of events. Such as exposure to antibiotics, toxins, viruses and light. To achieve this, CRISPR was programmed into cells so that a specific DNA edit was made only in the presence of the signal. By counting the rate of edits, they can even determine the duration and strength of the trigger.

6. Scale-up Sustainable fuels

Algae are used to produce biofuels but the problem is that they don’t have enough fat content. A company called Synthetic Genomics has produced a strain of algae which produces large amounts of fat. Using CRISPR Cas9 technology they were able to remove the genes which limited the production of fat.

REFERENCE

1. Yang, G., & Huang, X. (2019). Methods and applications of CRISPR/Cas system for genome editing in stem cells. Cell regeneration (London, England), 8(2), 33–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cr.2019.08.001

2. Wang, H., Nakamura, M., Abbott, T. R., Zhao, D., Luo, K., Yu, C., ... & Liu, Y. (2019). CRISPR-mediated live imaging of genome editing and transcription. Science, 365(6459), 1301-1305.

3. https://singularityhub.com/2018/02/27/not-just-gene-editing-crispr-toolkit-expands-with-trio-of-new-tricks/#sm.001tr8wct1blbdztu7616o2ctf15t

4. https://www.creative-biogene.com/crispr-cas9/solution/live-imaging-of-the-cellular-genome-via-crispr-system.html

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