  | | (ad) | | STL Genome Editing 2021…Virtually A New Beginning. 21-22 January 2021. Keynote Speaker: Charlie Gersbach, Ph.D., Rooney Family Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University. |
  |
| | |
| | Your Missing Links are Here Top picks Research - Reporting in Science, researchers have managed to use CRISPR to track proliferating cancer cells as they metastasise in real-time. Jonathan Weissman from the Whitehead Institute, USA and co-workers engineered lung cancer cells to express Cas9, luciferase, and three pairs of fluorescent genes and gRNAs targeting those genes. When these cells were transplanted to mice lungs and proliferated, new indels were randomly formed in each generation, generating a new fluorescent colour that could be tracked in vivo as metastasis progressed.
- In another attempt to track engineered cells in vivo over time, Canadian researchers have used homology-independent targeted integration (HITI) CRISPR-Cas9 minicircle donors to knock-in multiple reporter genes in mice. The system enables the use of the clinically approved MR reporter gene, Oatp1a1, to localise and track small primary and metastatic tumours that are otherwise not readily detectable.
- American researchers have inhibited CD8+ T-cell exhaustion by deletion of the E3 ubiquitin ligase Cbl-b gene. When cancer cells were transplanted into CD8+ edited mice, tumours grew markedly smaller than in mice with active Cbl-b.
- A new protocol for identifying genome-wide off-target sites of CRISPR RNA–guided nucleases and base editors is described in Nature Protocols. The method uses digested genome sequencing (Digenome-seq) to map in vitro cleavage sites corresponding to on- and off-target sites in cell-free systems.
Industry - Stocks of three major CRISPR biotech companies - Crispr Therapeutics, Intellia Therapeutics, and Editas Medicine - have more than doubled in the last few months, reaching a total market value above $23 billion. In a feature article about CRISPR, the business site Barron's gives a comprehensive overview of the gene-editing science and business potential.
- KSQ Therapeutics and Takeda have entered a collaboration worth more than $100 million to develop novel immuno-oncology therapies. The partnership will use KSQ's CRISPRomics discovery platform to identify new targets that modulate T-cells and natural killer (NK) cells.
- China National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) has approved the Investigational New Drug (IND) application for ET-01 developed by EdiGene. ET-01 is an investigational, autologous, ex vivo gene-editing therapy for patients with transfusion-dependent β-thalassemia.
- Base editing company Beam Therapeutics announces $260 million common stock investment from multiple investors. The investment comprises 2,795,700 shares for $93.00 per share, which is approximately 10% below the 5-day volume-weighted average share price.
- The leading gene-editing company Editas Medicine has announced the pricing of an underwritten offering of 3,500,000 shares of its common stock at a public offering price of $66.00 per share. Gross proceeds from the offering are expected to be approximately $231.0 million.
- A three-year-old spun out of Temple University, ExpressCells, has secured its first patent for its "Fast-HDR" gene-editing technology, developed to create advanced cell lines for drug discovery.
Vision and opinion Review Heh, huh, wow | | |
| | Thank you for now - more great reads are on the way! And if you have questions or suggestions, you can reach out to us directly at editor@crisprmedicinenews.com. We love hearing from readers! Happy Reading! Gorm p.s. You can follow CRISPR Medicine News on Twitter and LinkedIn. If someone forwarded this email to you, you can sign up for our newsletter yourself here. | | |
| | (ad) | | CRISPR QC pioneers streamlined and automated CRISPR quality control tools to accelerate research while improving accuracy and performance. |
 |
| | |
 |
|
