MAR 20, 2013 9:15 AM14,803
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When scientists Phillipe Horvath and Rodolphe Barrangou set out to find a better way to make yogurt, they didn't expect to stumble across one of the future's most promising discoveries: a super protein that can accurately cut DNA—and could perhaps revolutionize genetic engineering.
The protein, called Cas9, can be exploited to snip strands of DNA in exactly the place researchers want. It doesn't make genetic engineering easy, but does make it much, much easier—as it allows researchers to splice sequences of DNA together affordably, with unprecedented accuracy.
So how does it work? Well, Cas9 was found last year to join forces with bacteria in such a way that, combined, they home into viruses and kill them by cutting their DNA at specific, targeted points. That's interesting—in fact, it made it a prime candidate for making yogurt production more efficient./.../
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