Grady, Denise. “Crispr Takes Its First Steps in Editing Genes to Fight Cancer.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 6 Nov. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/11/06/health/crispr-cancer-leukemia.html.
In November, 2019, for the first time, the US tested a new technique involving gene-editing. The procedure works by removing ‘T-Cells’, essentially the genes fighting against the immune system. Crispr would then completely remove these genes because they affect the fight against cancer. By infusing cells, directly attacking the cancer infected tissue, it would also hopefully target a certain protein. It has been tested three times and been successful. It is still unclear however whether or not it is truly working because it has not been thoroughly tested. They plan to further the process and eventually get a better evaluation of this technique.
The article gave insight as to what cancer researchers have been recently gearing their studies towards. This is a huge step in my opinion. The fight towards cancer has been in act for forever and I think it’s really important that researchers at least have a lead as to what can be done and in singling out what is helping. Whether this technique ends up working in the long run or not, the US at least as a basis and can cross this attempt off of the list. Cancer also affects our environment, so much money is spent into this research and if this is THE cure then money would go into other causes, affecting other research progress. This could honestly be life changing for so many people, and definitely worth looking into deeper.
Crispr technology certainly seems to be a game changer for genetic editing, which is exciting for cancer treatments, along with other genetic ailments. My question for you is how does this relate to env. science. Think about it and I bet you can do it- be sure you make that connection in your follow up paragraphs for your topic (which can sometimes be less obvious with the env. connection than other topics, like climate change or end. species).