| | Your Missing Links are Here Top Picks Research - Researchers in the US generate engineer a new Cas9 variant, miCas9, with improved gene-editing efficiency. miCas9 is engineered by fusing a 36 amino acid-long minimal motif to the prototypical spCas9. MiCas9 binds the double stranded DNA (DSB)- repair protein RAD51 through this fusion motif, leading to enrichment of RAD51 at the target locus which conincides with improved DSB-mediated large size gene knock-in and a reduction in off-target indel events.
- A team from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in New York uses CRISPR to dissect the roles of certain genes that promote the growth of tumour cells. The findings point to a potentially new target for aggressive lung adenocarcinoma. Read a summary of the work on MSKCC website here.
- A collaboration between Harvard University, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and MIT has resulted in in vivo Perturb-Seq, a new technology that can investigate the functions of many different genes in many different cell types simultaneously, within a living organism. The team applied in vivo Perturb-Seq to disrupt 35 genes known to be associated with autism spectrum disorder in mouse embryos, and networks of gene expression observed in neuronal and glial cells suggest new functions for autism-associated genes. The findings were published in the journal Science.
- New findings from Rockefeller University provide the first evidence that telomere shortening, a phenomenom whereby the tips of our chromosomes become shorter throughout life, is good for us. Using CRISPR to recreate several mutations that were seen in certain cancer-prone families, the researchers were able to identify TINF2, a protein that limits telomere length and concomitantly maintains genome stability, thus functioning as a tumour suppressor.
Industry Clinical Trials Review Meetings and Webinars - Warm up to the 62nd American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting that is taking place virtually this weekend (December 5-8, 2020). Clinical data from several leaders in the CRISPR gene-editing field will be presented, including Cellectis, CRISPR Therapeutics and Penn University.
- California-based Allogene Therapeutics announces webinar to review initial ALLO-715 Phase 1 data on December 5, 2020. The company is developing allogeneic CAR T (AlloCAR T™) therapies for cancer and the webinar will specifically include a discussion of results presented at the American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting from the ALLO-715 UNIVERSAL Phase 1 trial in relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma.
Heh, huh wow - Researchers at Norwegian University of Science and Technology is studying the effects of exercise at the cellular level and sees potential for gene therapies that may mimic the positive cellular effects for those that either cannot exercise or don’t respond well to physical exercise, so-called low-responders. The researchers were recently interviewed here and you can read more about their work in an earlier review article.
| | |
| | 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! Karen 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. | | |
|
|