Lyrics

Think your rhymes are crisp? Well mine are CRISPR
Apply the Cas9 to your lines like genetic scissors
And snip away the offending mutation
Then knock-in a precise variation

To correct towards better rap flows
It’s the CRISPR revolution baby, act like ya know!
Turn a wack rapper into a rhyming machine
With gene editing like ya mama never seen!

Talking Clustered Regularly Interspaced
Short Palindromic Repeats in the place.
Sound complex? Maybe to the layperson
But don’t stress, ‘cuz right here in these verses

We’re gonna break it down, so let’s commence
Need a tool to manipulate a DNA sequence?
Well look no further than CRISPR technology
Consists of two key molecules, so you follow me
One: the aforementioned Cas9
A protein enzyme that binds
To a targeted strand of DNA and then snips it.
But this target, how do we ensure it won’t miss it?

Well, that’s where the second component comes into play
Namely, our guide RNA
Which functions exactly as you might’ve thought
Guides our Cas9 scissors to the precise spot

That we’ve targeted where it makes a double-strand break
Leaving a gap in its place
Into which scientists can introduce
Any DNA template that they so choose
To disable or maybe even correct a mutation
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg of applications
The most exciting of which you might agree
Is how CRISPR-Cas9 applies to disease.

Think your rhymes are crisp? Well, mine are CRISPR
Apply the Cas9 to your lines like genetic scissors
And snip away the offending mutation
Then knock-in a precise variation

To correct towards better rap flows
It’s the CRISPR revolution baby, act like ya know!
Turn a wack rapper into a rhyming machine
With gene editing like ya mama never seen!

What’s the genetic basis of disease?
Not an easy thing to research historically
Because disease models could be few and far between
Plus also unreliable, as we’ve recently seen

With Chloroquine, as endorsed by Trump he
Got excited by studies conducted in monkeys
Which did initially seem effective
Against infection, but much like drinking disinfectant

Ultimately, not suggested for humans
Illustrating in this case just how poorly suited
Using monkey cell lines was to predict
How well a therapy work in a human who’s sick.

The disease model, in other words, unreliable
But CRISPR plus stem cells give us a viable 
Alternative, a true game-changer
Demonstrated by the study published in Nature

By Bart Haagmans and his boy Hans Clevers
Together searching for the gene, key to the spread of
The SARS-CoV-2 infection, their method
Was to develop a biobank of mutant intestinal

Organoids, CRISPR engineered
And by observing said organoids, it appeared 
That the gene TMPR double-S 2
Was involved in the spread of SARS-CoV-2

And thus might be a worthwhile therapeutic target
In fact, inhibitors been developed that may soon go to market.
Similar work is currently underway 
In cancer, HIV, blindness, autism, chronic pain

Plus many other complex diseases
Thanks to the powerful modeling strategies
Provided by this CRISPR-Cas9 revolution
Truly a breakthrough for the health of humans.

Think your rhymes are crisp? Well mine are CRISPR
Apply the Cas9 to your lines like genetic scissors
And snip away the offending mutation
Then knock-in a precise variation

To correct towards better rap flows
It’s the CRISPR revolution baby, act like ya know!
Turn a wack rapper into a rhyming machine
With gene editing like ya mama never seen!