New Gene Editing Strategy
March 12, 2013 | Terry Sharrer
For about two decades, gene therapists have searched for a way to inactivate a harmful gene or replace it entirely. One strategy involved an intentional mismatch of DNA base pairs with a 50-50 chance that repair enzymes would correct the mistake. Recently, researchers at the University of California-Berkeley and MIT have worked with an enzyme from Streptococcus thermophilus that cuts DNA at specific points and introduces a complementary sequence. The technique is called “clustered, regularly interspaced, short palendromic repeats” (CRISPR)-associated systems and it suggests new potential for gene therapy in DNA editing. MORE
Image Credit: Christine Daniloff/iMol