Hello CRISPR Medicine News Readers

CRISPR Medicine Jobs is Here!

We recently launched the first targeted recruitment platform for CRISPR-related jobs. Prospective employers and job seekers from all over the world can use this unique platform to find highly skilled scientists and exciting jobs within the CRISPR Medicine field!

Check out the first external job posting from the Hendel Lab in Isreal right here.

Truncated Guide RNAs Protect Off-Target Sites From CRISPR-Cas9 Editing

Is off-target editing a concern in your CRISPR workflow? Doug Fowler at University of Washington has solved the problem with dead RNAs: truncated gRNAs that form a nonfunctional complex with Cas9 and shield the off-target sites from editing. Read all about it in our latest interview.

Your Missing Links Are Here!

Top Picks

• Researchers at Buck Institute for Research on Aging in Novato, California have used CRISPR-Cas9 to develop a gene drive system that can target sequences necessary for replication of wild-type human herpesvirus 5 (cytomegalovirus) and potentially suppress viral infection.
• Truncated guide RNAs Protect Off-Target Sites from CRISPR-Cas9 Editing. Read about how ‘dead’ or ‘guard’ RNAs can make CRISPR safer and more efficient in our interview with Douglas Fowler from University of Washington.

Research

• CRISPR screens have been used to identify the transcription factors that control human regulatory T cells under basal and proinflammatory conditions. These transcription factors might be future targets for immunotherapies.

Clinical Trials

• An international team of researchers are preparing Phase 1 clinical trials of a cutaneous vaccine against the parasite that causes leishmaniasis. The vaccine employs a strain of the parasite that has been attenuated by CRISPR mutagenesis and the research was published this summer.
• A Fast Track Designation for gene therapy treatment of phenylketonuria (PKU) has been granted by FDA to BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc.

Industry

• Michael Arciero has been appointed Vice-President of Intellectual Property and Commercial Development at ERS Genomics that licenses intellectual property held by Dr. Emmanuelle Charpentier.
• The COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanying race for new drugs is the main cause for an expected 21 % annual growth rate in the global CRISPR technology market. According to a new market report from The Business Research Company, the CRISPR market is expected to reach $1.55 billion in 2023.

COVID-19

• Distinct viral entry factors from different coronaviruses - including those causing common cold and Covid-19 - have been identified using parallel genome-wide CRISPR screens on virus infected.
• Using genome-wide CRISPR-based genetic screens in human cells, researchers in Belgium have identified a proviral host factor for Sars-CoV-2 that might be a novel drug target against Covid-19.
• Susceptibility to Covid-19 might be influenced by genetic variants of the FURIN gene that encodes a protein critical for viral infection. That was concluded from a study where CRISPR was used to introduce genetic variation.

Conferences and Webinars

• Lund University, Sweden is organising a physical and online symposium: New genome editing technologies for medicine and agriculture – implications for the society. The symposium aims to present scientific breakthroughs and their implications for research and the public. It will take place on the 13th October 2020 at 09.00-17.00.

Thank you for now - more great reads are on the way!

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Happy Reading!

Karen

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