The following Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson,

and is narrated by Tina Lehman.

CRISPR. What does gene editing mean for the future of primal living?

By now you've no doubt heard of CRISPR, spelled C-R-I-S-P-R,

the latest gene editing tool sweeping research labs across the globe.

It was first discovered in certain strains of bacteria, who use it as an important weapon against dangerous

viruses.

In bacteria, CRISPR identifies a virus that poses a threat, records the virus's genetic data, and imprints

it onto RNA molecules.

An immune enzyme called CAS-9 grabs one of the RNA molecules and goes exploring.

When CAS 9 encounters a virus that matches the data on the RNA molecule, it latches on and

slices the virus in half to prevent it from replicating and posing any threat.

Researchers have co-opted the CRISPR CAS9 mechanism to edit genes.

Instead of copying dangerous viral DNA sequences

onto the RNA molecules, they can copy over any sequence they want to edit. And instead of

Cas9 destroying viruses, it makes precise cuts and removes specific bits of genetic data

from the designated sequence. This allows researchers to target and edit

specific gene sequences with genetic data of their choosing. Are there risks? Off-target events.

Although we know how to program CAS 9 to make specific edits to genes, it's not always accurate.

Sometimes the wrong portion of the sequence

is removed and replaced. Other times, Cast 9 slices the right sequence, but once inside the

cell starts editing other sequences. Early CRISPR editing accuracy varied wildly, with some

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