full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Jennifer Kahn: Gene editing can now change an entire species -- forever

Unscramble the Blue Letters


OK, remember how I said that gene drives originally had two problems? The first was that it was hard to engineer a mosquito to be malaria-resistant. That's basically gone now, thanks to CRISPR. But the other problem was logistical. How do you get your trait to spread? This is where it gets clever.

A couple years ago, a biologist at Harvard named kvein Esvelt wdoneerd what would happen if you made it so that CRISPR inserted not only your new gene but also the mcarhneiy that does the cutting and pasting. In other words, what if CRISPR also copied and pasted itself. You'd end up with a perpetual motoin machine for gene eiintdg. And that's exactly what happened. This cripsr gene drive that Esvelt ceterad not only guarantees that a trait will get passed on, but if it's used in the germline cells, it will automatically copy and ptase your new gene into both chromosomes of every single individual. It's like a goalbl saecrh and replace, or in science terms, it makes a heterozygous trait homozygous.

Open Cloze


OK, remember how I said that gene drives originally had two problems? The first was that it was hard to engineer a mosquito to be malaria-resistant. That's basically gone now, thanks to CRISPR. But the other problem was logistical. How do you get your trait to spread? This is where it gets clever.

A couple years ago, a biologist at Harvard named _____ Esvelt ________ what would happen if you made it so that CRISPR inserted not only your new gene but also the _________ that does the cutting and pasting. In other words, what if CRISPR also copied and pasted itself. You'd end up with a perpetual ______ machine for gene _______. And that's exactly what happened. This ______ gene drive that Esvelt _______ not only guarantees that a trait will get passed on, but if it's used in the germline cells, it will automatically copy and _____ your new gene into both chromosomes of every single individual. It's like a ______ ______ and replace, or in science terms, it makes a heterozygous trait homozygous.

Solution


  1. editing
  2. paste
  3. global
  4. search
  5. motion
  6. machinery
  7. wondered
  8. kevin
  9. created
  10. crispr

Original Text


OK, remember how I said that gene drives originally had two problems? The first was that it was hard to engineer a mosquito to be malaria-resistant. That's basically gone now, thanks to CRISPR. But the other problem was logistical. How do you get your trait to spread? This is where it gets clever.

A couple years ago, a biologist at Harvard named Kevin Esvelt wondered what would happen if you made it so that CRISPR inserted not only your new gene but also the machinery that does the cutting and pasting. In other words, what if CRISPR also copied and pasted itself. You'd end up with a perpetual motion machine for gene editing. And that's exactly what happened. This CRISPR gene drive that Esvelt created not only guarantees that a trait will get passed on, but if it's used in the germline cells, it will automatically copy and paste your new gene into both chromosomes of every single individual. It's like a global search and replace, or in science terms, it makes a heterozygous trait homozygous.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
gene drives 10
gene drive 10
asian carp 4
anthony james 3
biologist named 2
ethan bier 2
red eyes 2
mendelian genetics 2
single individual 2
fruit flies 2
great lakes 2
bad news 2
complicated project 2
smart people 2


Important Words


  1. automatically
  2. basically
  3. biologist
  4. cells
  5. chromosomes
  6. clever
  7. copied
  8. copy
  9. couple
  10. created
  11. crispr
  12. cutting
  13. drive
  14. drives
  15. editing
  16. engineer
  17. esvelt
  18. gene
  19. germline
  20. global
  21. guarantees
  22. happen
  23. happened
  24. hard
  25. harvard
  26. heterozygous
  27. homozygous
  28. individual
  29. inserted
  30. kevin
  31. logistical
  32. machine
  33. machinery
  34. mosquito
  35. motion
  36. named
  37. originally
  38. passed
  39. paste
  40. pasted
  41. pasting
  42. perpetual
  43. problem
  44. problems
  45. remember
  46. replace
  47. science
  48. search
  49. single
  50. spread
  51. terms
  52. trait
  53. wondered
  54. words
  55. years