Biochemists Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The reason for the award is that they developed a technique – based on the system called CRISPR / Cas, discovered by the Spanish Francis Mojica in 1993 – which is considered today by the scientific community as a transcendental innovation in the field of molecular genetics, with multiple Applications.
Doudna and Charpentier were interested in unraveling the mechanism that certain microorganisms – archaea and some bacteria – use to defend themselves against attack by foreign genetic agents, such as bacteriophages. These viruses infect bacteria and use their cellular machinery to replicate.
The CRISPR / Cas system incorporates fragments of the DNA of the foreign agent into the bacterial DNA itself and thus serves as a guide that prevents future invasions. In addition, this information is transmitted to the next generation of bacteria, which gives them a mode of defense against the agents responsible for the original infection. It is, for all intents and purposes, a system that provides immunity to bacteria, that is, a kind of bacterial immune system.
A molecular scalpel with many possibilities
Doudna and Charpentier, in addition to unraveling the mechanism of the CRISPR / Cas system, realized its possibilities for its use for biotechnological purposes.
In fact, his technique is often called “molecular scalpel” because it is used to cut and paste genome fragments, that is, to edit it. As they noted in a review published in the journal Science in November 2014, the mechanism identified in bacteria has opened up enormous possibilities.
It is used, among other things, to analyze the function of genes in cells of all types of organisms, to reorganize their gene sequences by introducing new information elements into them, or to correct genetic mutations responsible for the development of serious diseases. It has also generated important expectations in the field of pharmacology and opens a huge range of possibilities in the development of plant crops with characteristics of special interest, with what this means for the development of new agricultural crops. I am referring to plants resistant, for example, to disease, water scarcity, saline soils, and other possible adverse factors.
One of the first signs of the possibilities of the molecular scalpel was the birth – announced in January 2014 in the journal Cell – of two macaques whose genome had been modified to develop Alzheimer’s disease. The purpose of this creation was to be able to use monkeys as experimental models for the study of the disease in a species that, being primates, is relatively close to the human species.
Since then, CRISPR applications have grown year after year and this tool has even been used during the current coronavirus pandemic. His dark side came in 2018, when the “medical nonsense of the century” took place that led to the gene editing of three babies in China bypassing ethical procedures.
Neutralize inherited diseases
There are many serious diseases that are transmitted in a hereditary way and that can be neutralized by editing the genome of the embryos and thus “correcting” the mutations. It is a fantastic possibility. And in the same way, the new technique also opens the way to editing the genome of embryos of different species so that the resulting individuals have certain characteristics.
Those species can be pets, farm animals, or even humans. Nobody is aware that the editing of human genomes in the embryonic state so that they develop certain characteristics is still a form of eugenics, with all the ethical implications that this implies.
A Nobel for wanting to understand the world
Jennifer Doudna, referring to her discovery, stated: “I have always focused on basic research, motivated by a desire to understand the world.” It is an important statement. Doudna and Charpentier did not research to develop a revolutionary technique that would yield enormous benefits of all kinds. No. They did it to see the world.
The motivation behind them was not to apply the knowledge they gained. They just wanted to understand how living things work. On this path of knowledge they found an application of crucial importance. It is not the first time it has happened. In fact, those who have made most of the scientific discoveries that have led to the great technological or health developments that have occurred in the last hundred years did not intend to obtain those developments. They just wanted to understand the world.
Juan Ignacio Pérez Iglesias, Professor of Physiology, University of the Basque Country / Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original.
