Não é necessário ter conhecimentos de biologia
Aprender edição genética, do zero
Uma série de guias curtos: o que é o DNA, o que é um gene, como é que o CRISPR encontra e altera uma sequência, e os métodos avançados que surgiram depois. Leia pela ordem ou salte para onde quiser.
24 guias. Cada um começa com uma resposta em linguagem simples e depois se aprofunda. Analogias são usadas livremente — e cada analogia vem acompanhada de uma nota indicando exatamente onde ela deixa de ser válida, porque uma analogia mal compreendida é a origem da maioria dos equívocos sobre essa área.
1 / 4
Start here
O vocabulário de que tudo o resto depende.
Guia · 4 min de leitura
What is DNA?
DNA is a long chemical chain that stores the instructions for building and running a living thing, written in an…
Guia · 4 min de leitura
What is a gene?
A gene is a stretch of DNA that carries the instructions for making one particular thing the cell needs — usually a…
Guia · 3 min de leitura
What is a chromosome?
A chromosome is one very long DNA molecule packaged with proteins; humans normally have 46, in 23 pairs.
Guia · 3 min de leitura
What is a genome?
A genome is the complete set of genetic instructions in an organism — every chromosome, every gene, and everything in…
Guia · 3 min de leitura
What is RNA?
RNA is DNA's working copy — a temporary, single-stranded version the cell makes when it needs to use a gene.
Guia · 5 min de leitura
What is a mutation?
A mutation is a change in DNA sequence. Most do nothing, some cause disease, and a few are beneficial.
Guia · 5 min de leitura
What is gene editing?
Gene editing is changing the DNA sequence already inside a living cell, at a chosen location.
Guia · 6 min de leitura
What is CRISPR?
CRISPR is a bacterial immune system that scientists reprogrammed into a tool for finding and changing a chosen piece of…
2 / 4
CRISPR basics
Como o sistema funciona na prática, passo a passo.
Guia · 6 min de leitura
How CRISPR works, step by step
A guide RNA finds the target, the Cas protein cuts, and the cell's repair machinery makes the actual change.
Guia · 4 min de leitura
What Cas proteins do
Cas proteins are the machinery of the CRISPR system: they carry the guide, search the genome, and cut what matches.
Guia · 4 min de leitura
What guide RNA does
The guide RNA is the address. It carries a short sequence matching the target and holds the Cas protein in place.
Guia · 5 min de leitura
How cells repair DNA — and why it decides the edit
The cell, not the editor, makes the change. Which repair pathway it uses determines what you actually get.
Guia · 5 min de leitura
What off-target editing means
An off-target edit is a change made somewhere other than the intended site, because the guide tolerated a mismatch.
3 / 4
Intermediate
O que a edição genética pode fazer a um gene e como ela é entregue ao organismo.
Guia · 5 min de leitura
Knockouts, insertions and deletions
The three basic things editing does to a gene: switch it off, take something out, or put something in.
Guia · 6 min de leitura
Delivery: the real bottleneck
Getting the editing machinery into the right cells, in enough of them, without harm — the problem that decides which…
Guia · 5 min de leitura
Ex vivo and in vivo editing
Ex vivo means editing cells outside the body and putting them back; in vivo means editing them where they are.
Guia · 5 min de leitura
Viral vectors
Modified viruses used as delivery vehicles — very good at getting inside cells, which is exactly what they evolved to…
Guia · 4 min de leitura
Lipid nanoparticles
Tiny fat bubbles that carry genetic cargo into cells — the delivery technology that made in vivo CRISPR possible.
Guia · 4 min de leitura
Turning genes up and down
Changing how loudly a gene is expressed, without changing a single letter of its sequence.
4 / 4
Advanced
Os métodos que surgiram após o Cas9 e para onde caminha a área.
Guia · 4 min de leitura
Multiplex editing
Making several edits in the same cell at once — necessary for cell therapy, and riskier than making one.
Guia · 4 min de leitura
CRISPR diagnostics
Turning CRISPR's habit of chopping up nearby nucleic acid into a fast, cheap test for a specific sequence.
Guia · 6 min de leitura
Why gene therapies cost millions
The economics of a one-time treatment for a small population — and why the arithmetic that produces a $2.2 million…
Guia · 5 min de leitura
How a gene-editing company works
What a pre-revenue biotechnology company actually is, and which numbers describe it — information, not investment…
Guia · 6 min de leitura
How to read a clinical trial result
What a Phase 1 result does and does not tell you, and the questions worth asking before you believe a headline.
