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Mice with green feet demonstrate CRISPR gene editing technology

2:06pm IST - 02:21

British scientists are testing cutting edge gene editing techniques in mice, by inserting a jelly fish gene that makes their skin green. Jessica Omari reports.

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These are no Frankenstein mice. Their green feet come courtesy of a fluorescent green jelly fish gene added to their own genome. This allows a team of British scientists to test out gene editing using CRISPR-Cas9 technology. SOUNDBITE (English) UNIVERSITY OF BATH REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGIST, DR ANTHONY PERRY, SAYING: "We take what were or would have been green embryos and we make them into non-green embryos, so it's a really great way of demonstrating the method." The technique uses the ribonucleic acid molecule CRISPR together with the Cas9 protein enzyme. CRISPR guides the Cas9 protein to a defective part of a genome where it acts like molecular scissors to cut out a specific part of the DNA. This could revolutionise how we treat diseases with a genetic component, like sickle cell anaemia. The technique is being pioneered in the U.S. SOUNDBITE (English) PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR AND CELL BIOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, JENNIFER DOUDNA, SAYING: "We now have a technology that allows correction of a sequence that would lead to normally functioning cells. And I think you know the opportunities with this are really exciting and really profound. There are many diseases that are have known genetic causes that we now have in principle a way to cure." Last year two teams of U.S. based scientists used CRISPR-Cas9 technology in mice to correct the genetic mutation that causes sickle cell disease. Although researchers aren't yet close to using CRISPR-Cas9 to edit human embryos for implantation into the womb - some are already warning against it. SOUNDBITE (English) DIRECTOR OF HUMAN GENETICS ALERT, DR DAVID KING,SAYING: "It will immediately create this new form of what we call consumer eugenics, that's to say eugenics driven by the free market and consumer preferences in which people choose the cosmetic characteristics and the abilities of their children and try to basically enhance their children to perform better than other people's children." Other potential applications of the technology could be to make food crops and livestock animal species disease-resistant. The British team say CRISPR-Cas9 presents a golden opportunity to prevent genetic disease.

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Mice with green feet demonstrate CRISPR gene editing technology

2:06pm IST - 02:21