CRISPR/CAS9-MEDIATED GENE EDITING: A NOVEL APPROACH FOR CYSTIC FIBROSIS

The idea of CRISPR - clustered regularly short palindromic repeats - was discovered in the DNA sequence of Escherichia coli bacteria in Osaka University of Japan in 1987 [11]. Later, in 2012, Jennifer Doudna along with her collaborator Emmanuelle Carpenter published a groundbreaking paper that described CRISPR-cas9 systems potential as a gene-editing tool. But prior to their collaboration each respective scientist was doing their own research which led them to their investigation into CRISPR. Doudna, an American biochemist at the University of California, Berkeley had already been established in the scientific community for her work in RNA and its role with biological processes. Early in her career, Doudna worked to analyse the three-dimensional structure of RNA to provide insights on RNA catalytic activity. She later started investigating the control that RNA molecules have on genetic information, leading to her fascination with the CRISPR process [12]. Charpentier, a French microbiologist, was studying a harmful bacterium, Streptococcus pyogenes, when she discovered a new molecule called tracrRNA. Her past work demonstrated that the tracrRNA molecule was part of a bacterial immune system known as CRISPR/Cas which could protect the bacteria from occupying viruses by splitting their DNA[15].After the discovery of the tracrRNA molecule, Charpentier knew she needed a partner to exchange their expertise on the topic of CRISPR.