Janice Chen: Could CRISPR Democratise Diagnostics? (Transcript)

Janice Chen

Janice Chen is a recent PhD graduate in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley. She is the co-founder and Chief Research Officer at Mammoth Biosciences, a biotechnology company harnessing a revolutionary gene-editing tool called CRISPR – used for rapid and affordable disease detection.

CRISPR is a tool that has revolutionized the field of gene editing and is now gaining terrain outside the lab with the aim of detecting diseases through a non-invasive procedure, a revolution in its own right.

Below is the full text of her TEDx Talk titled “Could CRISPR Democratise Diagnostics?” at TEDxCERN conference.

TRANSCRIPT:

For the past two days, you’ve been dealing with a sore throat and you just feel miserable.

Over the weekend, you develop a fever and cough and you feel too weak to even get out of bed. It’s like the worst cold you’ve ever had

You search online for a possible diagnosis and think that you might have the flu, but your symptoms also suggest a possible bacterial infection.

You decide it’s worth visiting a doctor, but because it’s the weekend, your only option is to visit the emergency services.

After an hour in the waiting room, a doctor finally examines you and sticks a swab up your nose for a flu test. She later confirms that you test positive for the flu, and sends you home with medication and instructions to rest and drink plenty of fluids.