by University of Tokyo Experts at the University of Tokyo have identified a new protein in the pathway that leads to Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers used the “molecular scissors” of CRISPR/Cas9 to search for new genes related to the neurodegenerative disease. The exact causes of Alzheimer’s disease remain unknown, but one of the most well-supported theories...
Despite centuries-long efforts to develop cures for cancer, various forms of the disease will kill about 630,000 people in the U.S. in 2020. But hopes are rising for cell therapies – sometimes called “living medicines” – that can boost and adapt the natural cancer-fighting potential of the immune system in ways that conventional cancer treatments...
Scientists have developed an inexpensive new test that can rapidly diagnose COVID-19 infections, a timely advance that comes as clinicians and public health officials are scrambling to cope with testing backlogs while the number of cases continues to climb. Developed at UC San Francisco and Mammoth Biosciences, the new test – officially named the “SARS-CoV-2...
Making changes to the molecular messengers that create proteins might offer flexible therapies for cancer, pain or high cholesterol, in addition to genetic disorder Thorsten Stafforst found his big break at the worst possible time. In 2012, his team at the University of Tübingen in Germany discovered that by linking enzymes to engineered strands of...
Using genetically engineered human pluripotent stem cells, University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers created a new type of cancer model to study in vivo how glioblastoma, the most common and aggressive form of brain cancer, develops and changes over time. “We have developed stem cell models that are CRISPR-engineered to have tumor-associated...
How anti-CRISPR proteins and other molecules could bolster biosecurity and improve medical treatments. Illustration by Sébastien Thibault It started out as “sort of a stupid thing to do”, recalls Joe Bondy-Denomy, a microbiologist at the University of California, San Francisco. As a graduate student in the early 2010s, he tried to infect bacteria with viruses...
University of Illinois researchers achieved the highest reported rates of inserting genes into human cells with the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing system, a necessary step for harnessing CRISPR for clinical gene-therapy applications. By chemically tweaking the ends of the DNA to be inserted, the new technique is up to five times more efficient than current approaches. The...
THE PAPER ACCOMPANYING THE CONTROVERSIAL EXPERIMENT WENT UNPUBLISHED — UNTIL NOW. BY KRISTIN HOUSER / DECEMBER 04 2019 Chinese scientist He Jiankui’s creation of the world’s first gene-edited human babies was undoubtedly one of the most impactful science stories of 2018. But for as much attention as the experiment received, the paper detailing it was never actually published — until now....
The ultimate goal of genome editing is to be able to make any specific change to the blueprint of life. A ‘search-and-replace’ method for genome editing takes us a giant leap closer to this ambitious goal. Randall J. Platt Variation in the DNA sequences that constitute the blueprint of life is essential to the fitness...
by Marilynn Marchione In this January 2019 image made from video provided by Penn Medicine, IV bags of CRISPR-edited T cells are prepared for administering to a patient at the Abramson Cancer Center in Philadelphia. Early results released on Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2019 show that doctors were able to take immune system cells from the...
