How Does CRISPR Just Saved a Baby’s Life… Millions Could Follow Work?

CRISPR is like a special tool that lets doctors fix tiny mistakes in our body’s instruction book, and it just helped save a baby's life!

Imagine your body is like a robot, and the instructions for how it works are written on tiny pieces of paper inside you. These papers tell your robot what to do: grow hair, beat your heart, or even breathe. Sometimes, there are little typos in these papers, mistakes that can make the robot not work quite right.

CRISPR is like a pair of scissors and a sticky note. It lets doctors find those typos, cut them out, and stick in the correct letters so the robot works better again.

A Real-Life Fix

In one case, a baby was born with a disease that made it hard for her body to make energy. Doctors used CRISPR to fix the typo in her instruction book, and now she’s healthy!

This is just the beginning. Scientists are working on fixing many other mistakes, which could help millions of people feel better, grow stronger, or even live longer. It's like giving everyone a chance to have a better robot inside them, one that works just right!

Take the quiz →

Examples

  1. A baby was born with a rare genetic disease, but doctors used CRISPR to fix the problem in her cells.
  2. CRISPR is like a molecular scissors that can cut and paste DNA pieces inside a cell.
  3. Scientists use CRISPR to treat diseases by changing faulty genes into working ones.

Ask a question

See also

Discussion

Recent activity