Like Us, Bacteria Have A Sophisticated Immune System Against Viruses Too

And how we can exploit bacteria’s immune system for gene therapy

Illustration by storyset from freepik.com, with modifications by author.

In 1987, molecular biologists Ishino Yoshizumi and colleagues at Osaka University were studying the iap gene — a gene that is involved in biochemical reactions — in a bacteria, Escherichia coli (E. coli). While mapping the gene‘s…