A life-changing tool

The twenty-first century will be the time of the advancement of biology — such a hint is found at the beginning of the century. From cloning to GM crops সবার from scientists to science-conscious ordinary people, the heated debate, the hope-disappointment discussion was noticeable everywhere. Information on the human genome was also known at the beginning of the century. But then in just a decade, the technology of uncovering genome information has advanced at an unimaginable pace. Next-generation sequencing technology has brought the work of years of genome data discovery down to day-to-day boundaries. With the advent of computer science, the pace of data analysis has also accelerated. Numerous softwares have been developed over the past decade to utilize biology. As well as data storage databases have become more range, open and easy to use.

With this advancement in genome data discovery and analysis — how to use this information স্বাভাবিক was naturally the most important question. The technology that scientists have invented to find the answer to that question is shaking the whole world. Everything that was around life is just a fictional element, it is now within reach. It happened so quickly that even its inventors were struggling to figure out how to use the technology. Crisper is literally a life-changing technology.

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The term CRISPR stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats. Its presence in bacteria was discovered by the Spanish scientist Francisco Mojica in the nineties of the last century. Primitive bacteria in particular use Crisper techniques to protect themselves against virus attacks. This allows an invading bacterium to infect the invading virus or a competitor to cut off the DNA of another bacterium.

Recently, scientists have given a completely new meaning to this discovery about Crisper almost two and a half decades ago. In particular, between 2012-2014, scientists developed the principle of the Crisper method, that is, the ability to cut DNA into ways to make changes to the DNA of any organism at will. Scientists from the University of California (Berkeley Campus) and MIT's Broad Institute were behind this work. Since then, research has spread rapidly to all the top laboratories around the world. A number of crisper-based strategies have been discovered, not just to cut and render DNA ineffective, but also to modify and modify DNA in any way. Crisper's new invention is also an excellent example of how the techniques that exist in nature can be used for research and life development.

Although only known as Crisper for short, its full name is actually ‘Crisper-Cass’ system. Cas9 is a type of endonuclease enzyme protein. Like any other endonuclease, CAS9 is capable of cutting DNA. However, the main feature of the Crisper-Cass 9 system is its precision. Like other common endonucleases that cut DNA anywhere, Crisper-Cas9 has a very stable purpose there. In the Crisper-Cas9 joint, the Crisper component plays a key role in directing the Cas9 enzyme to specific genes. The crisper part is made up of a combination of two types of RNA, Guide RNA and Tracr RNA. The demonstrated RNA is made in accordance with the nucleotide sequence of a gene, which determines where the CAS 9 will cut at any point in the DNA. On the other hand, the indicator RNA CAS9 signals the enzyme to bind to the exhibitor RNA.

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The ability to make such precise changes to any part of DNA (or genes) through Crisper-Cass9 is a groundbreaking milestone in the use of organism's genome information.

It seems that almost all the readers of this article know that almost all the information about the identity and life of the organism is stored in their DNA. Any inconsistency in the nucleotide sequence of DNA can have dire consequences for life, especially if the inconsistency is in the functional unit of DNA, or any part of the gene.

It is very promising to change or modify genes precisely through the Crisper-Cass 9 method. The use of this method in the permanent and definitive treatment of diseases, especially those caused by genetic mutations, is very promising. Crisper has made great strides in the treatment of complex diseases such as cancer, from hereditary diseases.

There are several areas of use of Crisper-Cas9 in the treatment of cancer. Crisper will play a role in both cancer prevention and cure. Cancers that are caused by a specific mutation in a gene can be modified using Crisper-Cass 9 if they are found in someone's genome. Modification of genes responsible for all cancers or pre-cancerous conditions that have a hereditary basis can now be done very successfully with the Crisper method. For example, Familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) is a hereditary disease. One of the reasons for this is that mutations in the APC gene (any abnormal changes in DNA) are thought to be responsible. A: There is an opportunity to correct mutations using Crisper. The same goes for breast cancer or retinoblastoma. Mutations in the IZA gene greatly increase the risk of breast cancer, while mutations in the oat 1 gene responsible for retinoblastoma. Scientists are also seriously considering whether it is possible to reduce the risk of cancer by modifying these genes.

It is important to remember that cancer can be cured only by modifying the mutations that act as the 'cause' of the cancer. Most mutations occur only in a series of ‘spectator’ or other important mutations. By modifying these mutations, the chances of any positive results in the treatment of cancer are slim. Immunotherapy is currently seen as one of the most promising ways to treat cancer. This makes our body's immune cells, especially T-cells, particularly useful for identifying and destroying cancer cells. In the Crisper method, if a specific gene or group of genes in T-cells can be modified to become more efficient and powerful, it will usher in a breakthrough in the treatment of cancer.



Photo: Science Thought

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Whether or not a gene can be modified in the Crisper method depends on the importance or role of the gene. Crisper is just a tool. One thing to note here is that even before Crisper-Cass9, scientists have discovered a way to modify the DNA sequence using nuclei, which has also been used extensively. TALENs (Transcription Activator-Like Effector Nucleases-TALENs) and Zinc-Finger Nucleases (ZFNs) are two popular methods that were most popular before Crisper. But compared to these techniques, Crisper costs much less, is easier to use and, as mentioned earlier, much more precise.

Crisper has brought the issue of genome data refinement to the forefront, just as it was the case with the costly research of basic laboratories. The potential and fears of scientists and science-conscious people about Crisper are also there. The great future of genome sequencing technology, as well as the availability of this genome modification, will determine the future of how we use it now.