CRISPR

I absolutely loved the topic of this article! I have seen the effects of chemo and radiation on a person and always wondered why they could not just target the cancerous cells. Why these chemicals were essentially poisoning the whole body and ultimately killing the person. It is SO crazy that at this point we can edit exactly what makes us, us! These scientists can edit the genes within a cell and then multiply them to eventually reintroduce them back into the bloodstream. I don’t think it could get much cooler than that!!

Of course there are risks to this process which include gene edits in the wrong place, excessive autoimmune response, etc. Excessive autoimmune response would trigger the cells to start attacking the gut, adrenaline glands, or other normal tissues. It is so beyond interesting that they plan to extract the T cells from the site of the tumour because of how those cells are designed to attack cancer. I do wonder though what happens when all of the cancerous cells are wiped out. Do these cells continue to attack healthy cells eventually destroying the whole body? What do they do when their job is finished?

When I grow up (lol that sounds kind of cliché) I really would like to do something in the oncology department of medicine for this reason exactly. It is always changing and always growing and so many people are actually living with cancer when just a few years ago, it was a death sentence. It is a trial like this that makes me want to dive right in to this subject and help as many people as possible.