The PREP program has allowed me to gain invaluable knowledge and participate in unique experiences that have inspired me to pursue science further. From learning about lab techniques and cancer to meeting active researchers and visiting labs, the opportunities and experiences that I have gained through PREP have truly been life-changing.
While I thoroughly enjoyed all the activities that we did during the past two weeks, the highlight of my SEP experience was learning about CRISPR and getting to perform a CRISPR reaction ourselves.
CRISPR-Cas9 has been a revolutionary advancement in the world of gene-editing, earning it a spot on the covers of popular magazines such as the Time and National Geographic in countless other headlines-it has garnered much excitement among the scientific community due to the astounding things it is capable of doing. CRISPR could be used to modify the genes of virtually any living thing, allowing us to create drought resistant crops, a solution to malaria, or even modified t-cells that could cure cancer-the possibilities are virtually endless.
CRISPR-Cas9 originally functioned as a defense mechanism in bacteria against harmful viruses. CRISPR stands for clustered regularly-interspaced palindromic repeats and describes the method in which bacteria store snippets of DNA from viruses that have infected them in their own DNA, providing the Cas9 enzyme with information that allows it to recognize and thwart future attacks from the same virus.
I had first read about CRISPR and its potential applications in cancer and disease treatment online and thus was extremely excited when I found out that we were going to have the opportunity to perform a CRISPR reaction ourselves. After learning about how CRISPR-Cas9 works, we used CRISPR-Cas9 to create a double stranded break in a segment of the BRCA1 gene. This is relevant to real research going on because CRISPR-Cas9 could be potentially used to “fix” a mutation in the BRCA1 gene that results in an increased risk of breast cancer. During this process we also utilized our new skills of performing PCR (polymerase chain reaction), a technique used to amplify DNA, and gel electrophoresis, which is used to visualize PCR products. When my lab partner and I analyzed our final products on a gel, we were thrilled to see that our CRISPR-Cas9 reaction had been successful in cutting the DNA segment.
Through conducting a CRISPR reaction, I gained a thorough understanding of how exactly CRISPR works as a bacterial defense mechanism and a gene-editing tool that I didn’t have prior to this experience. Furthermore, getting to experience and use a powerful tool that real scientists are utilizing in their experiments gave me a glimpse into what it is like being a researcher, and inspired me to want to become a scientist in the future. I hope to use the knowledge and experiences that I have gained from these two weeks to further pursue a career in science in the future.
Comments