Called CRISPR, or “clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats”, the technology is a powerful tool for editing genomes. It allows scientists to fix DNA segments, as easily as correcting an error in an article.
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One of the few researchers in India working on the human applications of CRISPR is Debojyoti Chakraborty. A senior scientist at the CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology in Delhi, he and his colleagues created a CRISPR-based Covid-19 diagnostic test called FELUDA in 2020.
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“When it comes to genome editing, we are kind of in the infancy. Although the funding for biology in general has been steadily growing, we have not had a long time with a lot of investment in infrastructure. Research in gene editing is not so abundant and it’s not increasing very fast, but it is growing steadily,” [Chakraborty said.]
“We are one of the few countries to have proactively started discussing and implementing policies.
But because the field moves so fast, the legislation and guidelines also need to move fast. We are living in an era where information is getting processed and improved at a rapid pace. The legislation must keep up with this progress,” [Chakraborty said.]
