Last week, I discussed the genetic basis of cancer risk, specifically breast cancer. This week I want to start talking about direct genetic diseases, starting with a disease that has an interesting connection with malaria: sickle-cell anemia. Sickle-cell anemia affects millions of people worldwide, and it is particularly common in people with African or Mediterranean ancestry. Individuals with two sickle-cell disease (SCD) genes (one from their mother and one from their father) develop sickle-cell anemia, which causes their red blood cells to become warped and “sickle” shaped. These sickle cells are stiff and they tend to build up in the…
Comments closedTag: Malaria
CRISPR-Cas9 has made genetic engineering easier, faster, and cheaper than ever before. A scientist interested in manipulating a particular gene only needs to search the gene’s sequence for a suitable PAM. Once a PAM is found, the corresponding Cas9 can be ordered or harvested from its bacterial strain (and as I mentioned last week, even if a PAM isn’t found, it is possible to engineer a Cas9 to recognize a new PAM sequence). An appropriate sgRNA (the crRNA:tracrRNA fusion molecule) can be designed by identifying the target sequence 20 nucleotides upstream of the chosen PAM. These sgRNA’s can be engineered…
Comments closed