Genetic Engineering - The Future That Will Change The Way Of Life | Part- 1

Science Fiction is something that we don't see in reality and just see it in movie theatres and enjoy. When people talk about the reality of the science fiction, people perceive it as nothing and neglect it. But there's a catch! Computers and laptops, the devices which are used world wide in a huge number today, were once thought as science fiction! Can you imagine something to be said unreal when its just exactly existing in front of your eyes? This is what fascinates us. Technology has evolved so fast that its science fiction revolution has opened our eyes. Humans have now understood that bringing science fiction to reality will change the way of life, the way we perceive life. And when we talk about biotechnology, maybe in the future, humans will be able to make Artificial Life in the form of Designer Babies. And that will not be shocking enough right then, because the world is about to enter a new technological era. Something that will change everything forever.

Genetic Engineering - The Future That Will Change The Way Of Life

Humans have tried to change the form of life artificially for a very long time through selective breeding, tissue culture and other asexual reproduction forms. But the thing is, they never understood how did it worked, until the basic code of life - The DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid) was discovered. Information is present in the structure of the DNA. There are four nucleotides which make up the code that carries instructions. And now, if you change these codes of instructions, you just change the whole organism's way of living itself.

As soon as DNA was discovered (by Francis Crick And James Watson), scientists started playing and changing its structure in a hope to get something new and unique. And sometimes, it worked too. Today, we produce many chemicals by means of engineered life. Before genetic engineering, we had to get all the required chemicals from organs of actual life, the animals. But now what exactly is genetic engineering?

Genetic Engineering is the modification of the characteristics of an organism by manipulating or changing its genetic material. The DNA contains the genes, and if those genes are are changed here and there or if they get manipulated by external means, then they change the characteristics or "properties" of the organism. 

Today, with the help of genetic engineering, we have super muscled pigs, fast growing salmons, featherless chickens and transparent frogs. All thanks to genetic engineering. We can also make artificial bioluminescence in certain aquatic organisms by means of genetic engineering. So, now, how is genetic engineering done? A Big and important question. We have genetic technologies that are enabling us to do so. To change the form of life:

CRISPR: The Gene Editing Tool

CRISPR also known as Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats is a technological gene editing tool that has given new wings to genetic engineering.

CRISPR is changing cancer research and treatment. Ever since scientists realized that changes in DNA cause cancer, they have been searching for an easy way to correct those changes by manipulating the DNA by genetic engineering.

Let's have a deeper look at CRISPR. Bacteriophages are a type of viruses that kill bacterium by inserting their own genetic code in the bacteria. Many times, the bacteria couldn't survive those DNA copies as their protection tools are very weak. But if it survives anyhow, it quickly saves a part of the virus DNA in their own genetic code in a DNA archive called CRISPR. Here its stored safely until its needed. When the virus attacks again, the bacterium quickly makes a RNA copy from the DNA archive and makes a secret weapon, a protein - The CAS9. The CAS9 helps the bacteria to cut out the virus DNA, making it useless and helping the bacteria to protect itself from the virus.  

The revolution began when scientists figured out that CRISPR system is programmable. CRISPR offers us to edit life's cells. It works for every types of cell - microbes, humans, plants or animals. A real life example to prove CRISPR was right is when in 2015, scientists used CRISPR to cut out the HIV virus out of living cells from patients in the lab. Thus, proving that was possible. Here as you can see, comes the science fiction to reality! CRISPR was injected into cells of rats to check if the virus got prevented. And it really did work out be successful! Many viruses can now be eradicated by CRISPR. 

CRISPR as we know can also defeat one of our worst enemies which is the cancer. So this shows that immune cells with CRISPR, when injected into a cancer patient, will help him to actually get cured. Maybe, in the future, if one wants to get rid of a cancer, then he or she might just have to take a couple of injections and live a happy life.

And what is the meaning of genetic engineering if their are no genetic modifications involved? Yes, there are genetic diseases. In fact, there are thousand's of them which is the problem humanity is facing even today. Genetic diseases are one of the greatest challenges to humanity. But with a powerful tool like CRISPR, we might able to eradicate genetic diseases in the world. Thousands of genetic diseases are caused by a single pairing mistake in the DNA. But, scientists are already working on a modified version of CAS9 that will be able to fix all these problems. In a few years, we could be able to cure those thousands of diseases forever and make the world a better place to enjoy life!

But one thing that you should know, is that all these injections provided to the person will only be limited to that particular person only and not his/her generations (except if you use them on reproductive cells or very early embryos). But as CRISPR has indeed done a great job and revolutionized the world, it will must be used for much more. Even for the creation of modified humans - Designer Babies.

All this must make you think, that is CRISPR always beneficial, or will it have something bad to deal with in future? Will humans survive in their natural form, or will they all be modified into creatures that are far beyond your imagination? Honestly speaking, CRISPR is a new technology and is still in progress. It has a lot to do in our upcoming futures and who knows, may be one day, there may be a real Centaur (half human half horse) roaming down the street casually and the world wouldn't look absurd to you anymore. 

What follows next is the future of something that will change the way of life forever. Thank you for reading. And if you want Part- 2, please comment below. I would love to make it.