Genetic Engineering Will Change Everything Forever.

Genetic engineering also called genetic modification, refers to the direct manipulation of DNA in an organism’s genome which further results in altering organism’s characteristics.

Genetic engineering has been used for years in medicine, agriculture, and industry, but now, as techniques have become more precise, it is now entering a new phase. Humans have been engineering genes for thousands of years by selectively breeding. But now more precisely, we can control what happens by DNA editing.

How has genetic engineering worked until now?
Generally, in simple terms, you take the DNA stretch you want to insert. You insert into the bacterium, and you introduce that bacterium into the organism you want to modify. This is a proven technique, but there’s no way of controlling where the bacterium is going to land and what effect you will get. Thus, it’s a bit like trying to edit a book and pasting material from another book before you get the result you’re looking for.

What are long-term benefits of precise genetic engineering likely to be?

Today, Genetic engineering is used by scientists to enhance the characteristics of an individual organism. Similarly, genetic engineering may not seem entirely real, but it can soon take over our lives. The future is all set to be genetically modified. Humans have been engineering genes for thousands of years by selectively breeding.

But now more precisely, we can control what happens by DNA editing. Are we going to have super humans tomorrow?

Will gene editing promise an end of disease, designer babies and everlasting youth?
We can expect to see more beneficial effects in agriculture that can cope better with climate change and use fewer inputs from land, water, and fertilizers. There will be improved yields and less necessity to spray on crops.

In human therapeutics, possibilities are limitless, as genes play a role in a wide range of diseases. Genetic engineering has opened up many opportunities for more personalized medicines.

How Genetic Engineering will change everything forever?

Until recently, gene editing was too expensive, but a new technology called CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat) shrinks the cost by 99%. What used to take years to complete, now is a few weeks process.

The CRISPR-Cas9 technique, was discovered in nature. It is essentially a molecule that finds a particular point in the genome on inserting DNA chunks in a more precise way.

In 2015, scientists used CRISPR to cut HIV cells out of mice. Now, CRISPR therapy cures HIV, Herpes and genetic diseases like Haemophilia or Huntington's disease. Also, the first clinical trial approved in humans in 2016 subjected to CRISPR, defeated cancer.

CRISPR can be used to create designer babies, once human embryo editing becomes more powerful. As genetic modification will be accepted, human characteristics like eyesight, height, muscle structure, intelligence and more will start enhancing.

Next, gene editing will also take on aging.
What more to argue if genetic engineering could stop aging?

Will such a future world reject unmodified humans?
But banning genetic engineering is not going to stop it. As someone, somewhere will carry on the genetic work.

A CRISPR FUTURE:
Since the last few years, CRISPR has been in the headlines. CRISPR-Cas9 is more precise, cheap, easy to use and surprisingly, powerful as well. Discovered in 1990’s CRISPR, has rapidly become the most popular gene editing tool in fields like agriculture, human biology, and microbiology.

1. Could correct the genetic errors that cause disease
2. Can eliminate the microbes that cause disease
4. Could create new, healthier foods
5. Could eradicate the planet’s most dangerous pest

“You don’t have to know what the answer is. Let the cell find the solution for you.”