“You can cut the pieces away, you can put
Of course, we have our genes to thank for our eye colour, height, perhaps even our personality, but also for our susceptibility to disease. For example, one in 19 Irish people carry a gene that causes cystic fibrosis, a condition affecting our lungs and shortens lives, while one in 5,000 of us have genes for Long QT Syndrome (LQTS), a condition affecting the heart, and which can lead to sudden death.
Some diseases, such as cancer, are thought to be caused by the action of many genes, while others, like cystic fibrosis and LQTS are due to one, or a few genes, and could, therefore, be more easily identified and “corrected” by Crispr. Meanwhile, the speed at which Crispr is being deployed in laboratories around the world to fight various diseases is breathtaking.
