The Nobel Series Part III: The Gene Scissors, CRISPR/CAS9

Chemistry in Everyday Life

Welcome back to the last episode of this Nobel Prize series during which I discuss the technology for which the two research groups around Prof. emmanuelle Charpentier and Prof. Doudna received the joint Nobel Prize for chemistry. This episode will put all the pieces that we encountered over the course of the last two episodes together and finally will explain, how the so-called gene scissors, CRIPS/CAS9, work.

I can now be reached on twitter under @ChemistryinEve1 , if you have feedback that you would like to share. Alternatively, you can send an email to [e-mail].

Sources

· The original paper from 2012 discussing CIRSPR/CAS9

o https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22745249/

· Great articles outlining how CRISPR/CAS9 works

o https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/explainer-how-crispr-works

o https://sequencing.roche.com/en/blog/what-is-crispr-and-why-is-it-a-revolutionary-tool.html

· Video explaining how CRISPR/CAS9 works

o https://cen.acs.org/articles/98/web/2020/10/Video-CRISPR-Cas9-works.html

· Wikipedia articles giving background information

o https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virus

o https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/CRISPR/Cas-Methode

o https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CRISPR_gene_editing

o https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cas9

o https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cas9

o https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palindromic_sequence

· Publications leading up to CRISPR/CAS9

o https://jb.asm.org/content/169/12/5429.short Paper mentioning CRISPR discovery

o https://science.sciencemag.org/content/315/5819/1709 Paper mentioning CRISPR defense mechanism of bacteria

· TED Talk by Prof. Doudna explaining her invention

o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdBAHexVYzc

o Ethical discussion on how to use this technology

o Remove HIV from human cells

o Cure hereditary diseases

· https://www.wilx.com/2020/10/07/nobel-peace-prize-awarded-for-gene-scissors/

o Link mentioning gene scissors

· https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/erbgut-vergleich-maus-und-mensch-sind-fast-identisch-a-198689.html