The Johnson lab recently created the Crispr-Cas9 a new technique for editing genomes. It can be used to delete any piece of "non-coding DNA" The lead researcher Carlos Pullido created a software called CRISPETa, the user tells CRISPETa which region they want to delete and the software returns sgRNAs that can be used by the researchers. It is expected that CRISPR will lead to being able to reverse disease causing mutations. Although right now CRISPR is in its experimental stages i believe this new technology could revolutionize not only the way we approach gene therapy in humans but also lead too domestication of wild crops. Rather than mix the DNA of different species this new gene editing software can speed up the time it takes to domesticate wild foods by editing existing genetic material.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/03/170302144002.html
http://www.seeker.com/cripsr-gene-editing-domesticate-wild-crops-frankenfoods-2305925383.html
This is amazing! Once this process is perfected I feel like it will be able to do a lot of good, but I'm sure there will be plenty of controversy surrounding it. Maybe not so much on the agricultural side, but definitely the human gene alteration side. it's interesting that in the article it says that the tool (CRISPETa) was actually designed for use by non-professionals. Thus, people like us (biology students) would be able to make use of it.
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