There are some diseases which don’t have a single cure. You have to keep on coming back to have your blood tested, and to get shots. I’m describing what people with specific genetic diseases have to go through. A genetic disorder is a harmful mutation, or when you have too much or too little genetic material. What if I told you there might be a way to cure some of them? CRISPR is an acronym for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats. It is an immune system that helps protect from viruses. CRISPR can be beneficial to the world, but some of its uses can be considered unethical. Some people think CRISPR is just an idea, and that it’s not going to do any good in the world, but actually, CRISPR is a revolutionary discovery because it can cure genetic diseases and it is a new technology that is developing.

CRISPR is a revolutionary discovery because it can cure many genetic diseases. There are three types of genetic disorders, they are: Chromosomal, Complex or multifactorial, and Single-gene or monogenic. Down syndrome and diabetes are examples of a chromosomal disease. Arthritis is an example of a complex disease, and sickle cell disease is an example of a single-gene disease. Sickle cell disease is when the red blood cells are deformed and look like a crescent or sickle. This can sometimes block blood flow. According to The American Journal of Medicine, “sickle-cell disease affects an estimated 100,000 individuals in the United States”. This is a huge number for this potentially lethal disease. CRISPR was finally authorized to treat sickle cell disease on December 8, 2023. Let me tell you about Fatimah. Fatimah is a girl with sickle cell disease (SCD). Both of Fatimah’s parents and her sister have SCD. Fatimah’s older sister has less of a problem with her disease. While Fatimah is in and out of the hospital all the time, her sister gets mild episodes of pain every now and then. At 7 years old, Fatimah had a terrible pain crisis so her parents took her to the emergency department. While there, her heart rate dropped. The doctors were able to get it back up to normal, but when she got up the next morning, “the whole right side of my body gave out; I just collapsed on the floor.” Fatimah had a stroke at 7 because of this disease. Luckily Fatimah made a full recovery and took care of herself, but this disease was still extremely impactful on her life. If CRISPR had been there to help cure the disease, Fatimah’s life would have probably looked a lot different. Overall, CRISPR can cure many genetic diseases and change countless people’s lives for the better.

CRISPR is a developing technology and it will be able to achieve numerous goals and dreams in the future. According to Fyodor Urnov, “CRISPR is curative. Two diseases down, 5,000 to go.” This is the right attitude. There is much potential for CRISPR, we just need the time and understanding to achieve it. CRISPR is relatively new, so the more we use it and research it the more we will gain an understanding of its meaning the more we can use it. In terms of using it on humans, we could potentially use it more, we just need more time. Additionally, sometimes the problem can’t be solved by cutting genes so we need to find a way to solve that with CRISPR too. In some genetic diseases we don’t know which gene causes the problem. We need to know this in order for CRISPR to work. Some people have concerns about CRISPR; they think it isn’t safe and that cutting human DNA could lead to problems. But tests have proven that so far, the benefits outweigh the risks. CRISPR is superior to other gene editing tools because CRISPR is easier to program and reprogram. According to Stanley Qi, “It makes genome editing similar to operating a GPS: If you want to go to destination A, you just type the address, and to change to destination B, you just enter the new location”. CRISPR saves money and time.

In conclusion, CRISPR is a revolutionary discovery because it can cure genetic diseases and it is a new technology that is developing. Even though CRISPR can malfunction and lead to serious consequences, so can other gene editing tools. But, other gene editing tools are less specific and have less potential. CRISPR can help the world by curing genetic diseases. Remember, if you can’t find the solution, you just have to keep looking.

Works Cited

Adashi, Eli Y., et al. “CRISPR Therapy of Sickle Cell Disease: The Dawning of the Gene Editing Era.” The American Journal of Medicine, vol. 137, no. 5, May 2024, pp. 390–392, www.amjmed.com/article/S0002-9343(23)00798-2/fulltext#:~:text=On%20December%208%2C%202023%2C%20the,and%20older%20with%20recurrent%20vaso%2D, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjmed.2023.12.018. Accessed 8 Mar. 2025.

CDC. “Personal Story: Fatimah.” Sickle Cell Disease (SCD), 22 May 2024, www.cdc.gov/sickle-cell/stories/fatimah.html. Accessed 8 Mar. 2025.

“Genetic Disorders: What Are They, Types, Symptoms & Causes.” Cleveland Clinic, 13 Sept. 2021, my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/21751-genetic-disorders. Accessed 8 Mar. 2025.

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