MBL Venue Packed For Film, Gene Editing Discussion | Falmouth Enterprise
Human beings now have the technology to rewrite our genetic codes and the codes of every organism on Earth.
What is more, this technology has been around for billions of years—bacteria naturally evolved it as a mechanism to fight off viral invaders—only to be discovered in the early 2000s by researchers working for a Danish yogurt culture company.
The gene-editing technology is an enzyme called Cas9, or CRISPR associated protein 9, and it has already caused a paradigm shift in how basic and clinical research is being conducted in the biological sciences worldwide. But the possibilities for its use are, to put it plainly, nearly limitless.
Curing genetic diseases, engineering life forms to resist the effects of climate change, boosting human intelligence—science fiction is rapidly becoming science fact. Read more of the article here.
Source: Woods Hole Venue Packed For Film, Discussion About Gene Editing | Falmouth News | capenews.net