{"id":74233,"date":"2025-11-20T12:58:39","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T07:28:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=74233"},"modified":"2025-11-21T11:42:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T06:12:13","slug":"birsa-101","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/birsa-101\/","title":{"rendered":"BIRSA 101"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>BIRSA 101 Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recently, the union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science &amp; Technology launched India&#8217;s first indigenous &#8220;CRISPR&#8221; based gene therapy for Sickle Cell Disease and named it BIRSA 101.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About BIRSA 101<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is India&#8217;s <\/span><b>first indigenous CRISPR-based gene therapy<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, designed to treat Sickle Cell Disease (SCD).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The therapy has been named Birsa-101 in honour of the <\/span><b>tribal leader <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/birsa-munda\/\" target=\"_blank\">Birsa Munda<\/a>.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Developed by: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is developed by the <\/span><b>CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (IGIB).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Key Features of BIRSA 101<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>CRISPR Technology:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It utilizes the <\/span><b>CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing tool<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to correct the genetic mutation causing Sickle Cell Disease.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Affordability:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It is <\/span><b>priced significantly lower<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> than global CRISPR treatments, making it more accessible to the poorest populations.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>How does Birsa-101 Cure Sickle Cell Disease?<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Birsa-101 precisely corrects the <\/span><b>mutations in the genetic code<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that causes the disease.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The therapy has to be <\/span><b>given as a one-time infusion<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, after which the body should start producing normal red blood cells instead of sickle-shaped ones.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>What is Sickle Cell Disease?<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a <\/span><b>genetic condition<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that leads to the body\u2019s <\/span><b>red blood cells becoming rigid<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><b>sickle-shaped<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and less capable of carrying oxygen.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The shape of the blood cells can also lead to blockages in blood flow, leading to acute episodes of pain, chronic pain, organ damage, anaemia, infections, and strokes.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A person can be a carrier and not have a disease.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The likelihood of a child having the disease increases if <\/span><b>both parents are carriers<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or one parent has the disease and the other is a carrier.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source: <\/b><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pib.gov.in\/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2191740\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">PIB<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BIRSA 101 is India&#8217;s first indigenous CRISPR-based gene therapy, designed to treat Sickle Cell Disease (SCD). Read more about BIRSA 101, Key Features, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":74262,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3795,21,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-74233","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-birsa-101","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}