CRISPR Technology for Eradicating Borrelia:
Amazing New Way to Fight Lyme Disease Takes 1st Place
CRISPR Technology could be a top new way to eradicate Borrelia, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease (LD). 
What is CRISPR? CRISPR is an acronym for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats. It is “a genetic engineering technique in molecular biology by which the genomes of living organisms may be modified. It is based on a simplified version of the bacterial CRISPR–Cas9 antiviral defense system. By delivering the Cas9 nuclease complexed with a synthetic guide RNA (gRNA) into a cell, the cell’s genome can be cut at a desired location, allowing existing genes to be removed and/or new ones added in vivo.“ – Source: Wikipedia –
In layman’s terms, the researchers cut up, rearrange and splice DNA sequences from one organism or organisms to destroy another one. It’s not quite that simple, but you get the picture. It has exciting potential for those of us with long term Lyme disease.
A few years ago, Dr. Chase Beisel, an Assistant Professor at North Carolina State University, was recognized with a prestigious Bay Area Lyme Foundation’s Emerging Leader Award. This recognition came as a result of his lab‘s unique work exploring a potential new treatment for Lyme disease: CRISPR technology.
His work has been recognized with a number of National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institute for Health (NIH) and other significant awards. Dr. Beisel’s research combines molecular biology, chemical engineering, and mathematical modeling. The field of Lyme research was a new direction for his lab. It is a perfect fit for the Foundation’s objective of attracting some of the brightest and best minds in the country in the application of innovative new approaches and methodology to radically increase the speed with which new diagnostics and treatments for Lyme disease are developed. What follows is an article and interview with Dr. Beisel from 2016 by the Bay Area Lyme Foundation.
Dr. Beisel and his colleagues call this technology a “smart bomb,” designed to go after only one specific, targeted bacterium, in this case, Borrelia, with results that are lethal to the bacterium.
In theory, if this works as intended with no technological errors, it could become first in line for fighting long term Lyme disease. Unfortunately, any research takes time, a necessary factor for avoiding errors that could make a bad problem worse. But it is hopeful.
I realize that Lyme disease almost always includes multiple organisms along with the Borrelia, but there is hope! I believe that once we are able to eradicate the Borrelia, there is a much better chance of getting rid of the coinfections. One step at a time!
Enjoy the article and the transcript of the interview: CRISPR TECHNOLOGY: A NEW APPROACH TO ERADICATING BORRELIA.
Your comments below are welcomed. Please come back after and give your thoughts on the interview. Does it make you hopeful?
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