Midterm Report: Gene and Genome editing techniques

Midterm Report: Gene and Genome editing techniques
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 The application of gene and genome editing technique allows researchers to cut and edit DNA, which then opens up various possibilities to treat diseases like cancer and HIV and even reduce the severity of condition like blindness. The genome editing techniques are also useful to understanding of genetic diseases, but there are still technical limitations that make it difficult to use these techniques widely (to Cox, Platt & Zhang, 2015). The discovery of the genetic code has made it possible to expand genetic engineering techniques including capacity to reprogram cell codes. One of the fundamental questions of biological thinking has been the clarification of the complex relationship between structure and life and better understanding of this relationship would provide insights on how to improve health and treat some diseases.
The human genome contains all the genetic information stored in the DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) of the cells. This information contains the instructions, which mainly determine an individual’s physical characteristics and makes them unique. The human genome is made up of a nuclear and a mitochondrial genome is most important because it stores information. In humans 50% of the genetic information is from a father and the 50% from the mother. The information is stored in the somatic cells in a physically independent way, and they constitute the homologous chromosomes, while in the germ cells there is recombination of ye homologous chromosomes takes place, which generates singular chromosomes based on both the maternal and paternal DNA. As such, sexual reproduction is responsible for genetic stability and evolutionary diversity of the species unlike cloning.
Innovations and improvements in genome editing techniques like nucleation-based genome editing technologies allow the scientists to cut nucleic acids and utilize therapeutic options together the gene therapy. These therapies allow the scientists to insert a functional copy of an altered gene into the tissue or organism, and in cases of disease, this interferes with the RNA, avoids the expression and function of certain genes. The main programmable nucleases approaches are the CRISPR Cas9 system, (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat) the zinc finger nucleases (ZFN) transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs) and the meganucleases (Kim & Kim, 2014). “Programmable nucleases enable precise genome editing by introducing DNA double strand breaks (DSBs) at specific genomic loci” (Kim & Kim, 2014). CRISPR technology is a recent genome editing tool, which is based on cutting the DNA sequence of the genome in certain ways, while allowing changes. Some of the earliest use of genetic engineering started with the production of insulin and using transgenic mice in studies, but these methods were imprecise and costly for large scale clinical trial. Researchers have focused on overcoming these limitations using genomic editing mechanisms, which can result in many changes that are accurate and a better coordinated in cells.   According to Cox, Platt & Zhang (2015), CRISPR-Cas remains one of the best opt...