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To this day, scientists are still trying to unravel the mysteries of medicine. We see this daily when articles of the latest research or development are uploaded onto the web or in many different science journals. You might have heard about something called ‘CRISPR’. This six-letter abbreviation has had a massive impact on the breakthroughs of research and new developments in the field of medicine. Maybe you've heard of Alzheimer's, the progressive neurological disorder that eventually causes loss of memory. Scientists have finally had a breakthrough on how to slow this down.
Clustered, regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats, or what is commonly known as CRISPR. CRISPR has been one of the most significant recent developments in healthcare, and the effect that CRISPR has on medicine as a whole is immaculate. CRISPR is a family of DNA sequences found inside the genomes of bacteria.
CRISPR has been a significant advancement in medical studies as it is the essence of gene editing. Scientists have developed ways to use this gene tool to manipulate genes so that it significantly impacts science. CRISPR is a way of manipulating DNA and changing it into different forms, such as turning genes in DNA on and off without changing the sequence of the DNA. Furthermore, this can come in handy in the future when scientists try to change the genomes of people or animals or even treat cancer and diseases.
One of the main reasons this gene-editing tool has made such an immense impact in the science world is its precision. The precision of CRISPR and how it can edit a single gene in a chain of 3 billion genes without making a mistake is life-changing. On top of all of that, CRISPR being a lot cheaper and having a faster outcome makes this super beneficial for most scientists and research in general. In most recent terms, it's been tested to manipulate cancer cells and try to get rid of them. CRISPR might have had one of the biggest recent breakthroughs in science and medicine.
On to a completely different topic but a more recent development in medicine, one of the most recent developments has been a device called pulsed field ablation(PFA). This device marks a milestone in electrophysiology and is a promising tool for treating Atrial fibrillation. This device employs electrical pulses onto the myocardium by using short bursts of high energy without damage to any heart tissue. PFA involves a process called electroporation, which causes cell membranes to become permeable due to the high voltage of the electrical pulse.
There are many benefits with this device, such as:
Faster procedure times
Low risk to adjacent structures
High success rates
Less anaesthetic time
To conclude, these are just two recent developments in the field of medicine, and with such a major impact, it is evident that science and medicine are rapidly changing and advancing beneficially. We can definitely say that there are many more new developments in the medical field to come.
Reference List
Clarivate. (2024). Clarivate Identifies Five Breakthrough Medical Technologies Set to Transform Patient Care in 2024 | Clarivate. [online] Available at: https://clarivate.com/news/clarivate-identifies-five-breakthrough-medical-technologies-set-to-transform-patient-care-in-2024/.
Cleveland Clinic. (2024). Pulsed-Field Ablation: A New, Highly Selective Catheter Ablation Method for Heart Arrhythmias. [online] Cleveland Clinic. Available at: https://consultqd.clevelandclinic.org/pulsed-field-ablation-a-new-highly-selective-catheter-ablation-method-for-heart-arrhythmias.
National Cancer Institute (2020). How CRISPR Is Changing Cancer Research and Treatment. [online] Available at: https://www.cancer.gov/news-events/cancer-currents-blog/2020/crispr-cancer-research-treatment.
New Scientist. (2019). What is CRISPR? [online] Available at: https://www.newscientist.com/definition/what-is-crispr/.
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