Emmanuelle Charpentier of the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology and Jennifer Doudna of the University of California, Berkeley have won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for their discovery of CRISPR, which has been described as a kind of editing software that can be used on DNA (which is information anyway, which makes the software analogy particularly apt).
CRISPR is the abbreviation for regularly interspaced grouped short palindromic repeats. Charpentier and Doudna, this is the first time two women have been awarded a Nobel Prize in science, found that a CRISPR-associated protein 9 (which is why their discovery is often referred to as CRISPR-Cas9) that is naturally found in bacteria could be used to cut DNA; In the case of the bacteria they studied, Cas9 was actually being used to attack an invading virus.
Genome editing can prevent and treat many diseases, once we know how to use it safely in humans and address the ethical concerns surrounding technologies like CRISPR-Cas9. Last year, CRISPR moved from labs to human trials. Currently, there are several clinical trials for a variety of ailments, from melanoma to sickle cell anemia. And along the way, the researchers discovered that the CRISPR Toolkit can be used as a diagnostic platform to detect virtually anything, inexpensively and easily (the simplicity is purely from the end-user perspective; the technology is very complex. ).
- A CRISPR technology that can be altered in RNA could attack viruses in which the genetic material of RNA (this is true for most viruses that cause influenza and also Sars-CoV2, which causes coronavirus disease), although At this time, this is the scope of the investigation.
Earlier this year, scientists even found Cas13, which cuts RNA rather than DNA, a safer and more effective option in some cases. In fact, a CRISPR technology that can target RNA could target viruses in which the genetic material is RNA (this is true for most viruses that cause flu and also Sars-CoV2, which causes coronavirus disease. ), although, at this time, this is in the realm of research.
I wrote about CRISPR in a December 2019 essay on how the decade between 2010 and 2019 saw significant developments that would help create “machines that can think,” facilitate “space colonization,” and extend human life expectancy to 100 years, maybe more.
Still, while CRISPR’s potential to fight a virus (like the one that causes coronavirus disease) is clear, years of research, clinical trials, and regulatory debates lie in between. But there is a closer connection between CRISPR and Covid-19, and it is an Indian connection.
- There is a closer connection between CRISPR and Covid-19, and it is an Indian connection. The link is Feluda, a rapid and inexpensive test to diagnose Covid-19 that has been developed at the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology in Delhi, and is named after a fictional detective created by Satyajit Ray. The paper test is as fast as a rapid antigen test and as accurate as the RT-PCR test. It will launch in India soon, and that would not have been possible without CRISPR
The link is Feluda, a rapid and inexpensive test to diagnose Covid-19 that has been developed at the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology in Delhi, and is named after a fictitious detective created by Satyajit Ray (the detective’s real name is Prodosh Chandra Mitra but everyone calls him by his nickname, Feluda).
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Much has been written about the test on paper (the Hindustan Times first wrote about it in May) and it turns out that Feluda (as in the test) is also an acronym for the Uniform Screening Test linked to the publisher of FnCas9. Debojyoti Chakraborty, one of the Feluda developers (the other being Soutik Maiti) best described it in a May interview with HT: “CRISPR-based Feluda tests work by combining CRISPR biology and paper strip chemistry,” he explained. “The Cas9 protein, a component of the CRISPR system, has a barcode to specifically interact with the CoV2 sequence in the genetic material of a patient. The Cas9 complex with CoV2 is then applied to a strip of paper, where, by using two lines (one for control and one for test), it is possible to determine if the original sample was infected with Covid-19 ”. This is a lot like the popular strip pregnancy tests and, like them, when the strip shows two lines it means a positive result.
It turns out that Feluda is as inexpensive and fast as a rapid antigen test, and as accurate as the expensive and time-consuming RT-PCR test.
Feluda, which will soon be launched in India by the Tata group, would not have been possible without CRISPR, which is why the chemistry Nobel announced on Wednesday is significant.
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