CRISPR-like system tagged posts

Researchers uncover new CRISPR-like system in animals that can Edit the Human Genome

Fanzor/ωRNA/target DNA complex
Credit: Courtesy of the Zhang lab
Cryo-EM map of a Fanzor protein in complex with ωRNA and its target DNA.

A team of researchers led by Feng Zhang at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT has uncovered the first programmable RNA-guided system in eukaryotes—organisms that include fungi, plants, and animals.

In a study published in Nature, the team describes how the system is based on a protein called Fanzor. They showed that Fanzor proteins use RNA as a guide to target DNA precisely, and that Fanzors can be reprogrammed to edit the genome of human cells...

Read More