Genomics & Immunotherapy

I spent ~5 months exploring genomics learning about DNA, gene editing tools, disease prediction, and more.

A lot of my time was devoted to reading papers and backtracking through all the terms I didn't understand (allele, phenotype, etc). I believe a lot of the problems left to be solved in the world are biological problems, largely because of biology's distance from physical laws we can easily verify.

Content I Made

An Alzheimer's Hypothesis: Microglia are the immune cells of the brain. Clear phenotype changes in microglia such as phagocytosis (consuming surronding cells) are seen in Alzheimer's patients. We propose a genetic engineering method to prevent destructive microglia behaviour.

DNA 101 and gel electrophoresis: A breakdown of DNA, how protiens are produced, the power of PCR to replicate DNA and how gel electrophoresis distinguises between two DNA strands.

CRISPR 101: A description of the CRISPR system, and how we've applied it after discovering it in bacteria decades ago.

CAS-13: A gene editing tool that is able to locate a specific sequence of RNA, and begins the cleave any RNA that binds to it if the given sequence is found. This allows us to make a conditional check for the presence of a gene (an if statement for the human body).

CAR-T cells: Why you're immune system loses to cancer, how T-Cells can be enhanced to attack cancer cells with a specific receptor, and the use of CRISPR and viral vectors to genetically engineer T-Cells.

Polygenic risk scores: A genetic test that predicts your risk for getting a disease.