Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Isis Pharmaceuticals have harnessed chemically modified RNA-based drugs, the intermediary between DNA and proteins, to perform CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing with more potency and efficiency. In just the past few years, researchers have found a way to use a naturally occurring bacterial system known as CRISPR/Cas9 to inactivate or correct specific genes in any organism. The new approach is a significant step forward in gene-editing, which has been limited by its reliance on RNA as an intermediary. Commenting on the study, senior author Don Cleveland, PhD Chair of the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at UC San Diego described the "many advantages over the current CRISPR/Cas9 system, such as increased editing efficiency and potential selectivity" his team had acheived and underlined that the improved CRISPRs could be produced "efficiently, on an industrial scale and in a commercially feasible manner today."
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Isis Pharmaceuticals have harnessed chemically modified RNA-based drugs, the intermediary between DNA and proteins, to perform CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing with more potency and efficiency. The new approach is a significant step forward in gene-editing, which has been limited by its reliance on RNA as an intermediary. Commenting on the study, senior author Don Cleveland, PhD Chair of the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at UC San Diego described the "many advantages over the current CRISPR/Cas9 system, such as increased editing efficiency and potential selectivity" his team had acheived and underlined that the improved CRISPRs could be produced "efficiently, on an industrial scale and in a commercially feasible manner today."