CRISPR tagged posts

A genome-editing strategy developed at Rice University can correct dozens of errors at the same time with high precision and efficiency, a possible breakthrough for those who suffer from diseases caused by a combination of mutations.

The “drive-and-process” array, DAP for short, also appears to be highly adept at avoiding off-target edits, errors that have plagued earlier gene-editing strategies.

Engineer Xue Sherry Gao and graduate student and lead author Qichen Yuan of ...

An illustration of how CAS-12A works with DNA. Illustration by Jenna Luecke, University of Texas at Austin

Scientists have found conclusive evidence that Cas9, the most popular enzyme currently used in CRISPR gene editing, is less effective and precise than one of the lesser-used CRISPR proteins, Cas12a. Because Cas9 is more likely to edit the wrong part of a plant’s or animal’s genome, disrupting healthy functions, the scientists make the case that switching to Cas12a would lead to safer and more effective gene editing.

“The overall goal is to find the best enzyme that nature gave us and then make it better still, rather than taking the first one that was discovered through historical accident,” said Ilya Finkelstein, an assistant professor of molecular biosciences and a co-author of the ...

A transmission electron micrograph image of the Zika virus. Credit: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Scientists potentially have found a way to disrupt Zika and similar viruses from spreading in the body. A team at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has identified a single gene pathway that is vital for Zika and other flaviviruses to spread infection between cells. Further, they showed that shutting down a single gene in this pathway – in both human and insect cells – does not negatively affect the cells themselves and renders flaviviruses unable to leave the infected cell, curbing the spread of infection.

Michael Diamond, MD, PhD, the Herbert S...

Highlights • Inducible CRISPRi iPSCs provide a valuable resource for rapid gene knockdown • CRISPRi knockdown is efficient, tunable, and reversible in iPSCs • CRISPRi knockdown is highly specific • CRISPRi enables disease modeling in iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes

CRISPR interference system inhibits rather than cuts the genome to suppress genes in stem cells, improving efficiency and precision of CRISPR-Cas9. Combining the 2 most powerful biological tools of the 21st century, scientists at the Gladstone Institutes have modified how the genome of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) is read for the first time using a variation of the CRISPR-Cas9 system. The development offers a major technological advance in creating cell models of genetic diseases.

The researchers used a modified ve...