What are CRISPR gene edits?

Welcome! I'm so excited to explore the revolutionary world of CRISPR with you. Before we dive into the science, I'd love to know a bit about what brings you here.

To help me tailor our session, could you tell me a little about your background? For example, are you approaching this from a student's perspective, for personal interest, or something else?

I am a student studying biology.

It's wonderful to meet a fellow biology enthusiast! Since you're studying biology, you'll love diving into the molecular details of how this system works.

Let's start at the very beginning by looking at the high-level roadmap of what we will cover today.

Your path

How CRISPR Works: Mechanisms of Action

Applications and Future Potential

To kick off our first topic, let's unpack what the acronym actually stands for. It is a bit of a mouthful: Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats.

What does 'palindromic' mean in this context?

In molecular biology, a palindrome has a slightly different twist than a word-based palindrome like "racecar" — it is all about how the two strands of the DNA double helix face each other. A occurs when the sequence on one strand of DNA, read in a specific direction (from what we call the 5' to 3' end), is identical to the sequence on the complementary strand read in that same direction.

A double-stranded DNA sequence of the EcoRI restriction site, showing how the top strand reads 5'-GAATTC-3' left-to-right, while the bottom strand reads 5'-GAATTC-3' right-to-left.

This symmetry is what makes those repeating regions in CRISPR so recognizable to researchers. Now that we have cracked the "Palindromic Repeats" part of the name, let's explore where bacteria actually get these repeating sequences and why they keep them around.