What is CRISPR-Cas?

CRISPR-Cas is a powerful new technology that is revolutionising biology. It's like cut and paste for DNA.

Scientists are already using CRISPR to introduce genes for disease resistance into wheat and insert malaria-blocking genes into mosquitoes. CRISPR could even allow us to eliminate certain genetic diseases in humans.

But we didn't invent CRISPR – instead we borrowed it from microbes like bacteria and archaea.

Watch this video to learn more about how these micro-organisms use CRISPR to fend off parasites like viruses, and how we've adapted it into a game-changing gene editing tool.

Microbiology Today is the Society's quarterly magazine. The content is balanced to meet the needs of the Society’s members. The magazine aims to provide informative and enjoyable broad-interest articles for all readers, including parliamentarians and policy-makers. Each issue focuses on a topic, and topics are chosen with the aim of covering all fields of microbiology.

Read more about CRISPR-Cas in the August 2016 issue of Microbiology Today: http://microbiologysociety.org/microb...

The Microbiology Society is a membership charity for scientists interested in microbes, their effects and their practical uses. It is one of the largest microbiology societies in Europe with a worldwide membership based in universities, industry, hospitals, research institutes and schools.

Our principal goal is to develop, expand and strengthen the networks available to our members so that they can generate new knowledge about microbes and ensure that it is shared with other communities. The impacts from this will drive us towards a world in which the science of microbiology provides maximum benefit to society.

Visit our website to find out more: http://www.microbiologysociety.org

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