Texas Biomed has received a $3.9 million NIH grant to explore how gene-editing technology may help eradicate HIV in the brain.
Tag: Gene Editing
A Potential Danger of CRISPR Gene Editing — and Why Base Editing May Be Safer
Gene therapy using CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing is currently in clinical trials around the world for a variety of diseases.
Who trusts gene-edited foods? New study gauges public acceptance
Researchers at ISU surveyed a nationally representative sample of 2,000 U.S. residents to gauge public acceptance of gene-edited foods. Social factors like food beliefs and trust in institutions played a big role in the participants’ willingness to eat or actively avoid products made with gene-editing technologies.
A ‘factory reset’ for the brain cures anxiety, drinking behavior
Gene editing may be a potential treatment for anxiety and alcohol use disorder in adults who were exposed to binge drinking in their adolescence, according to the results of an animal study published in the journal Science Advances. The researchers used a gene-editing tool called CRISPR-dCas9 in their experiments to manipulate the histone acetylation and methylation processes at the Arc gene in models of adult rats.
New centre to train experts in crop resilience
University of Adelaide experts are part of a new research centre that will train the next generation of scientists to develop more resilient crops.
Genetics/biotech expert offers comments & availability on IVG (in vitro gametogenesis) major breakthrough
A groundbreaking study demonstrating the most advanced form of in vitro gametogenesis (making eggs from stem cells, IVG) was published Thursday in Science. See STAT’s coverage of the study. Regarding the study and breakthrough, Dr. Kevin Doxzen offers the below comments…
CHOP Researchers Use Base Editing in Preclinical Model to Correct Lethal Lysosomal Storage Disease Before Birth
Adding to the growing body of literature demonstrating the feasibility of correcting lethal genetic diseases before birth, researchers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have used DNA base editing in a prenatal mouse model to correct a lysosomal storage disease known as Hurler syndrome. Using an adenine base editor delivered in an adeno-associated viral vector, the researchers corrected the single base mutation responsible for the condition, which begins before birth and affects multiple organs, with the potential to cause death in childhood if untreated.
UIC researchers invent new gene-editing tool
Researchers have discovered a new gene-editing technique that allows for the programming of sequential cuts — or edits — over time.

Gene-Editing ‘Scissor’ Tool May Also be a ‘Dimmer Switch’
In a series of experiments with laboratory-cultured bacteria, Johns Hopkins scientists have found evidence that there is a second role for the widely used gene-cutting system CRISPR-Cas9 — as a genetic dimmer switch for CRISPR-Cas9 genes. Its role of dialing down or dimming CRISPR-Cas9 activity may help scientists develop new ways to genetically engineer cells for research purposes.

Digging Deep For Differences In Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy
DALLAS – Dec. 21, 2020 – A UT Southwestern research team has catalogued gene activity in the skeletal muscle of mice, comparing healthy animals to those carrying a genetic mutation that causes Duchene muscular dystrophy (DMD) in humans. The findings, published online recently in PNAS, could lead to new treatments for this devastating degenerative disease and insights into factors that affect muscle development.
Advancing Gene Editing With New CRISPR/Cas9 Variant
Researchers report the ability to improve safety and efficacy using a CRISPR-Cas9 variant known as miCas9.

Breaking It Down: How Cells Degrade Unwanted Micrornas
DALLAS – Nov. 12, 2020 – UT Southwestern researchers have discovered a mechanism that cells use to degrade microRNAs (miRNAs), genetic molecules that regulate the amounts of proteins in cells.

Weizmann Scientists Reveal the Role of Retrons in Bacteria
Prof. Rotem Sorek’s lab at the Weizmann Institute of Science has revealed the role retrons play in bacteria, finding that the hybrid structures are immune system guards that ensure the bacteria’s survival when it is infected by viruses. In addition, the team hopes that newly identified retrons will improve genome-editing tools.

Cancer-Fighting Gene Restrains ‘Jumping Genes’
DALLAS – Oct. 29, 2020 – About half of all tumors have mutations of the gene p53, normally responsible for warding off cancer. Now, UT Southwestern scientists have discovered a new role for p53 in its fight against tumors: preventing retrotransposons, or “jumping genes,” from hopping around the human genome. In cells with missing or mutated p53, the team found, retrotransposons move and multiply more than usual. The finding could lead to new ways of detecting or treating cancers with p53 mutations.

Can Gene Editing and Gene Therapy Techniques Combine to Treat Angelman Syndrome?
Babies born with a faulty maternal copy of the UBE3A gene will develop a severe neurodevelopmental disorder with no cure and limited treatments. Now, scientists show that gene editing/gene therapy techniques can be used to restore UBE3A in human neuron cultures and treat deficits in an animal model.
Regulators Classify Gene-Edited Rice Varieties with Disease Resistance as Equivalent to Conventional Varieties
The Healthy Crops team, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, have used gene editing tools to develop new varieties of disease-resistant rice that regulators in the United States and Colombia have determined are equivalent to what could be accomplished with conventional breeding.
American Chemical Society’s president comments on award of 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
On behalf of the American Chemical Society (ACS), President Luis Echegoyen, Ph.D., congratulates today’s winners of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry: Emmanuelle Charpentier, Ph.D., and Jennifer A. Doudna, Ph.D. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the prize “for the development of a method for genome editing.”
Something old, something new combine for effective vaccine against parasitic skin disease
Scientists are planning for Phase 1 human trials of a vaccine they developed by using CRISPR gene-editing technology to mutate the parasite that causes leishmaniasis, a skin disease common in tropical regions of the world and gaining ground in the United States.

Research shows potential of gene editing in barley
An international team of plant scientists have shown the potential to rapidly improve the quality of barley grain through a genetic tool known as CRISPR or gene editing.

Twist on CRISPR Gene Editing Treats Adult-Onset Muscular Dystrophy in Mice
UC San Diego researchers demonstrate that one dose of their version of CRISR gene editing can chew up toxic RNA and almost completely reverse symptoms in a mouse model of myotonic dystrophy, a type of adult-onset muscular dystrophy.
Danforth Center Scientists Collaborate On $13 Million Bioenergy Project
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) awarded a five-year, $13 million grant to a nationwide research project to genetically strengthen Thlaspi arvense, commonly known as pennycress, for use in sustainable energy efforts.

Scientists use CRISPR to knock down gene messages early in development
Researchers at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City, Missouri, and the Andalusian Center of Developmental Biology at Pablo de Olavide University in Seville, Spain, have harnessed the technology to target gene messages (messenger RNA) involved in early vertebrate development.

Light-Activated ‘CRISPR’ Triggers Precision Gene Editing and Super-Fast DNA Repair
In a series of experiments using human cancer cell lines, scientists at Johns Hopkins Medicine say they have successfully used light as a trigger to make precise cuts in genomic material rapidly, using a molecular scalpel known as CRISPR, and observe how specialized cell proteins repair the exact spot where the gene was cut.

Scientists Aim Gene-Targeting Breakthrough Against COVID-19
Scientists at Berkeley Lab and Stanford have joined forces to aim a gene-targeting, antiviral agent called PAC-MAN against COVID-19.
Next Frontier in Bacterial Engineering
A new technique overcomes a serious hurdle in the field of bacterial design and engineering
Researchers develop method to identify proteins that enable highly efficient bacterial design
Approach has potential to boost efforts in bacterial design to tackle infectious diseases, bacterial drug resistance, environmental cleanup and more

Grant will help scientists break new ground in gene editing
A new grant from the National Institutes of Health will allow Iowa State University scientists to continue to develop gene editing technologies to model human disease in zebrafish. The research aims to build new tools to determine which genes have therapeutic potential to treat human genetic diseases that affect the cardiovascular, immune and nervous systems.

“CRISPR: A Screener’s Guide” Headlines the March Edition of SLAS Discovery
The March edition of SLAS Discovery features the cover article, “CRISPR: A Screener’s Guide,” by Carlos le Sage, Ph.D., Steffen Lawo, Ph.D., and Benedict C.S. Cross, Ph.D., (Horizon Discovery, United Kingdom). In their review, the authors discuss how CRISPR-Cas9 systems are being used widely throughout the drug discovery process and the development of new precision medicines.
Fred Hutch scientists host press event on future of medicine at AAAS annual meeting
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center will host a press breakfast Feb. 14 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, to be held Feb. 13-16 in Seattle.
Hope for patients with a rare genetic condition linked to severe infections
A research team sheds light on the mechanisms underlying chronic granulomatous disease.

Opening Up DNA to Delete Disease
Protein editorial assistants are clearing the way for cut-and-paste DNA editors, like CRISPR, to access previously inaccessible genes of interest. Opening up these areas of the genetic code is critical to improving CRISPR efficiency and moving toward futuristic, genetic-based assaults on disease. The DNA-binding editorial assistants were devised by a U.S.-based team of bioengineers, who describe their design in APL Bioengineering.

New CRISPR-based System Targets Amplified Antibiotic-resistant Genes
Researchers have developed a new CRISPR-based gene-drive system that more efficiently inactivates a gene rendering bacteria antibiotic-resistant. The new system leverages technology developed by UC San Diego biologists in insects and mammals that biases genetic inheritance of preferred traits called “active genetics.”
Researchers clear the path for ‘designer’ plants
A team of researchers at the University of Georgia has found a way to identify gene regulatory elements that could help produce “designer” plants and lead to improvements in food crops at a critical time. They published their findings in two separate papers in Nature Plants.

Scientists unveil search-and-replace genome editing
Researchers have designed a more precise and versatile genome editing system, named prime editing, that harnesses the power of CRISPR-Cas9 in combination with another protein, reverse transcriptase, to directly edit DNA in human cells.