7/21/21:  CRISPR has potential as a treatment effective against variants of Covid as they arise (published in Nature Communications).  Note the spacer mismatch data in Fig 2 g-I of this article, which has similarities to Fig 3 of Jinek et al 2012, covered in Part 3 of the Case It CRISPR exercise. 

3/25/21: CRISPR has recently show promise for the treatment of chronic pain, as an alternative to opioids. A gene-silencing technique involving Cas9 was used to prevent nerve cells from producing a particular type of sodium channel thought to be associated with chronic pain. (Note: The function of sodium channels can be studied by recreating the Nobel Prize-winning experiments of Hodgkin and Huxley on the nature of the action potential).

10/7/20: Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the research paper that is the basis for this CRISPR exercise. Note that Part 4 covers the key experiment.