An engrossing documentary about a breakthrough in molecular biology with enormous implications for treating genetic diseases
This documentary from Adam Bolt and Regina Sobel is about a revolution that has been quietly taking place in molecular biology and medicine: a revolution compared here to the invention of the internet but gaining a fraction of the attention. (The more pertinent comparison may be with nuclear energy.) It is the innovation of gene editing and Crispr (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats), a crucial pattern of DNA sequences in micro-organisms that allows them to resist viral infection by replicating a section of the virus’s DNA and using it as a kind of “wanted” poster to fight off the invader.
This mechanism can be used to cut, copy and replace pieces of DNA – to “edit” DNA, like changing a piece of written text – and the technology has enormous implications for treating genetic diseases.
This documentary from Adam Bolt and Regina Sobel is about a revolution that has been quietly taking place in molecular biology and medicine: a revolution compared here to the invention of the internet but gaining a fraction of the attention. (The more pertinent comparison may be with nuclear energy.) It is the innovation of gene editing and Crispr (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats), a crucial pattern of DNA sequences in micro-organisms that allows them to resist viral infection by replicating a section of the virus’s DNA and using it as a kind of “wanted” poster to fight off the invader.
This mechanism can be used to cut, copy and replace pieces of DNA – to “edit” DNA, like changing a piece of written text – and the technology has enormous implications for treating genetic diseases.
- 12/4/2019
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
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