CRISPR Cas-9 Illustration

We created a piece of art for Science Photo Library, showing the molecular structure of the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing complex. The CRISPR-Cas9 protein is used in genome engineering to cut DNA. It uses a guide RNA sequence to cut DNA at a very specific matching site. The Cas9 protein is shown in blue-white. The guide RNA is red, and the double-strand of the DNA is white-grey. We used actual structural data obtained through x-ray crystallography to build accurate structures.