Researchers uncover a new CRISPR-like system in animals that can edit the human genome
A team of researchers led by Feng Zhang at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard has uncovered the first programmable RNA-guided system in eukaryotes — organisms that include fungi, plants, and animals.
In a study published today in Nature, the team describes how the system is based on a protein called Fanzor. They showed that Fanzor proteins use RNA as a guide to target DNA precisely, and that Fanzors can be reprogrammed to edit the genome of human cells.
Co-first author Makoto Saito of the Zhang lab led the biochemical characterization of the Fanzor proteins, showing that they are DNA-cutting endonuclease enzymes that use nearby non-coding RNAs known as ωRNAs to target particular sites in the genome.
The compact Fanzor systems have the potential to be more easily delivered to cells and tissues as therapeutics than CRISPR-Cas systems, and further refinements to improve their targeting efficiency could make them a valuable new technology for human genome editing.
https://bcs.mit.edu/news/researchers-uncover-new-crispr-system-animals-can-edit-human-genome
ارسال به دوستان