{"id":104368,"date":"2020-03-27T19:47:07","date_gmt":"2020-03-28T02:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2020\/03\/genome-editing-and-the-future-of-biowarfare-a-conversation-with-dr-piers-millett"},"modified":"2020-03-27T19:47:07","modified_gmt":"2020-03-28T02:47:07","slug":"genome-editing-and-the-future-of-biowarfare-a-conversation-with-dr-piers-millett","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2020\/03\/genome-editing-and-the-future-of-biowarfare-a-conversation-with-dr-piers-millett","title":{"rendered":"Genome Editing and the Future of Biowarfare: A Conversation with Dr. Piers Millett"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/genome-editing-and-the-future-of-biowarfare-a-conversation-with-dr-piers-millett.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Most simply, the phrase \u201cgenome editing\u201d represents tools and techniques that biotechnologists use to edit the genome \u2014 that is, the DNA or RNA of plants, animals, and bacteria. Though the earliest versions of genome editing technology have existed for decades, the introduction of CRISPR in 2013 \u201cbrought major improvements to the speed, cost, accuracy, and efficiency of genome editing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>CRISPR, or Clustered Regularly Interspersed Short Palindromic Repeats, is actually an ancient mechanism used by bacteria to remove viruses from their DNA. In the lab, researchers have discovered they can replicate this process by creating a synthetic RNA strand that matches a target DNA sequence in an organism\u2019s genome. The RNA strand, known as a \u201cguide RNA,\u201d is attached to an enzyme that can cut DNA. After the guide RNA locates the targeted DNA sequence, the enzyme cuts the genome at this location. DNA can then be removed, and new DNA can be added. CRISPR has quickly become a powerful tool for editing genomes, with research taking place in a broad range of plants and animals, including humans.<\/p>\n<p>A significant percentage of genome editing research focuses on eliminating genetic diseases. However, with tools like CRISPR, it also becomes possible to alter a pathogen\u2019s DNA to make it more virulent and more contagious. Other potential uses include <a href=\"https:\/\/www.technologyreview.com\/s\/600774\/top-us-intelligence-official-calls-gene-editing-a-wmd-threat\/\"> the creation of \u201c\u2018killer mosquitos,\u2019 plagues that wipe out staple crops, or even a virus that snips at people\u2019s DNA.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Most simply, the phrase \u201cgenome editing\u201d represents tools and techniques that biotechnologists use to edit the genome \u2014 that is, the DNA or RNA of plants, animals, and bacteria. Though the earliest versions of genome editing technology have existed for decades, the introduction of CRISPR in 2013 \u201cbrought major improvements to the speed, cost, accuracy, [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":513,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1506,412,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-food","category-genetics","category-military"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/513"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104368\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}