CRISPR-Cas9 is a DNA modification technique derived from a bacterial defense mechanism.
This breakthrough innovation allows the deletion and insertion of genes in a simple, fast and efficient way, much like "DNA scissors".
The CRISPR-Cas9 method is increasingly used in laboratories because it has several advantages over the DNA cutting enzymes developed before it.
First advantage, it is much easier to use (compared to other gene-editing tools). It has already allowed several teams of researchers to target several genes at once, including in human cells.
Other major advantages resulting from the simplicity of the system: its speed and its low cost. The CRISPR-Cas9 method takes only a few days (instead of a few months) and is at least ten times less expensive than those used before.
CRISPR-Cas9 is therefore a tool of disconcerting ease to modify the genome of many types of cells (to produce a protein for example), in bacteria, plants, animals and perhaps one day in humans.
