Question Answers?Gene Technology Future
Posted by Andrea Brook on December 17th, 2015
What is the effect of a more sophisticated gene engineering?
First, like any technology, once it becomes cheaper and easier to use, it will be more widely used, so we expect that in the next few years, the activities and innovations around the gene engineering will usher an outbreak.
From the point of view, it is now possible to change the public's perception of gene engineering by directly editing the genome without splicing DNA from other organisms. Unfortunately, there are a lot of controversy about the "transgenic" organisms, which have many official obstacles. That means most of the EU, Africa and Asia can hardly grow the transgenic crops. Compared to the operability of the biological gene transformation, the regulatory barriers are more severe, and the new technology provides a valuable opportunity to change the situation.
What has changed?
Now, the new technology can edit DNA more preciously, as with word processing software to edit a book. At present, the most exciting technology is CRISPR-Cas9. Essentially, that is a molecule that can find a specific point in the genome and precisely cut or implant the DNA group.
CRISPR-Cas9 technology is not invented. It is a kind of microorganism that has evolved billions of years. To sum up, when a creature is attacked by a virus, it will take part DNA of the virus. When attacked again, it will be able to remember and fight back. It was not until 2013 that scientists discovered that CRISPR-Cas9 was in nature, and realized that it could be a tool for gene technology.
In terms of security, what is the difference between the new technology and old?
No difference, this is a problem of public perception. Controversy is largely due to the widespread misunderstanding of the DNA way. DNA is essentially just an alphabet containing four letters, to encode all the biological information. But many people think that the DNA of a living creature will have the essential element of the creature. Therefore, when people heard to implant the pig's gene into bananas, they tend to be very disgusted.
Author from: http://www.cd-genomics.com/
