Visual representation of CRISPR tool editing genes

Besides carrying out gene modifications, the CRISPR guide RNA can be used to screen genomes for specific targets.  This is what researchers at the Baylor College of Medicine are doing with a new bioinformatics tool they devised called “CRISPRBetaBinomial.”  It relies on “simple guide RNA” (sgRNA) that combines both the CRISPR RNA guide sequence (17-20 nucleotides) and a tracer RNA molecule. The aim of this isn’t to identify a specific coding gene, but those genes that modify another gene’s expression level.    MORE

Image Credit:  National Human Genome Research Institute/Ernesto del Aguila III