The Owl (Apr 2016)
CRISPR-Cas9 Utility in Genome Engineering
Abstract
The field of genomic engineering and manipulation has made great strides in recent years in the developing techniques to alter the genome to alleviate disease by flexing control on an epigenetic scale. Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) poses a series of points in its pathophysiology to examine the utility of these manipulation techniques. This paper specifically focuses on how three approaches can be applied to ultimately stop the expression of the full length double homeobox 4 DUX4 gene transcript which is thought to be responsible for the upper body muscular atrophy exhibited in most FSHD cases. With this information, we can surmise what the future holds in terms of our thoughts on the purpose of repetitive DNA, the role of epigenetics in disease, and how to apply new genetic engineering techniques in creative ways.
