CRISPR, crispr genome editing system - Part 3

Software Helps Gene Editing Tool CRISPR Live Up to Its Hype

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New algorithms make CRISPR as easy as point-and-click Biotechnologists are jumping at the chance to use the revolutionary gene-editing tool known as CRISPR. The molecular gadget can be programmed to accurately tweak the DNA of any organism, but scientists need software algorithms to hasten the programming process. Dozens of teams are developing such software, and each faces the task of keeping up with rapidly evolving science and an increasingly crowded field. CRISPR—short for Clustered, Regularly Interspaced, Short Palindromic Repeats—is a genetic phenomenon found in microbes that scientists adapted to disable a gene or add DNA at precise locations in the genetic code. CRISPR isn’t the first gene-editing tool on the block, but it is by far the simplest and cheapest,...
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Desktop Genetics, Imperial College London Receive $430K Grant to Build CRISPR Software

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Genome editing software company Desktop Genetics and Imperial College London’s cancer epigenetics unit have received a £300,000 ($430,000) grant from Innovate UK, which they will use to develop software tools that selectively design CRISPR/Cas9 targets against cancer cell lines that are characterized at the epigenetic level. The planned software tool will combine Desktop Genetics’ predictive biomodelling capabilities with heterogeneous genomic and epigenomic datasets. It will help researchers investigate the epigenetic mechanisms that underpin resistance to chemotherapy in ovarian cancer cell lines. “This project will combine the best elements of epigenetic research, bioinformatics, and CRISPR to create a tool that solves a real problem in the field of oncology,” Bob Brown, chair of translational oncology in Imperial College’s department of surgery...
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British approval of embryonic gene editing research brings CRISPR into focus

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The newest developments in editing genes in human embryos will come from the United Kingdom after scientists from the Francis Crick Institute were granted approval to work on human gene editing in embryos. In early February, the British government’s fertility regulator granted a research application for institute researchers who will reportedly use gene editing techniques to analyze the earliest stages of embryo development in the first weeks after conception. We’ve discussed gene editing techniques involving CRISPR and Cas9 in recent weeks here on IPWatchdog, especially their use in combating HIV/AIDS. However, the use of the Cas9 enzyme to snip genetic code of specific CRISPR clustered repeats, or to insert new code, could eventually be used to edit code in embryos,...
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Jennifer Doudna Answers Questions about CRISPR

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JENNIFER DOUDNA SPEAKS AT HER 13 FEBRUARY PLENARY SESSION AT THE 2016 AAAS ANNUAL MEETING. | BOSTON ATLANTIC PHOTOGRAPHY Last year, the genome-editing method CRISPR came to power as a technology poised to change everything from how we fight disease to whether we might finally be able to rid the world of the mosquito. The journal Science named CRISPR its Breakthrough of the Year, and Time magazine named one of its discoverers, University of California, Berkeley’s Jennifer Doudna, as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In her 13 February plenary talk at the 2016 AAAS Annual Meeting, Doudna took her audience through the technical breakthroughs that turned her “curiosity-driven science project” on how bacteria build immunity against viruses...
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Cocrystal Pharma Announces In-Licensing of CRISPR Cas Technologies for Hepatitis B Virus and Human Papilloma Virus

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ATLANTA, GA 02/10/16 Cocrystal Pharma, Inc. (OTCQB: COCP), a company focused on developing novel antiviral therapeutics for human diseases, announced today it has signed an agreement with Duke University and Emory University to license various patents and know-how to use CRISPR/Cas9 technologies for developing a possible cure for hepatitis B virus (HBV) and human papilloma virus (HPV). “We’re pleased to bring the CRISPR/Cas DNA editing technology developed in our laboratories into the clinic,” said Bryan R. Cullen, Ph.D., the James B. Duke Professor, Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at Duke University School of Medicine. “We look forward to adding Cocrystal to our team as they are committed to helping the development of potential new treatment options for chronic HBV and...
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The billion-dollar CRISPR patent battle: A case of big money shaping science

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The 21st century is still young, but it may already have its era-defining patent fight. The contestants are the University of California and the Broad Institute, a Harvard- and MIT-affiliated research foundation endowed by Los Angeles billionaire Eli Broad. At stake are the rights to a breakthrough gene-editing technology known as CRISPR — and more precisely, to billions of dollars in royalties and license fees likely to flow to whichever claimant prevails before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (and in the almost inevitable appeals in court). “This is a monumental event for patent attorneys, molecular biologists, the PTO, and the world,” patent expert Jacob Sherkow wrote recently on Stanford’s Law and Biosciences blog. CRISPR — an acronym for the...
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CRISPR may be used for oil production through the yeast with edited genome

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RIVERSIDE, Calif. (www.ucr.edu) — A team led by a researcher at the University of California, Riverside has adapted the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing system for use in a yeast strain that can produce useful lipids and polymers. The development will lead to new precursors for biofuels, specialty polymers, adhesives and fragrances. Published recently in the journalACS Synthetic Biology, the research involves the oleaginous (oil-producing) yeast Yarrowia lipolytica, which is known for converting sugars to lipids and hydrocarbons that are difficult to make synthetically. Until now, Y. lipolytica has been hard to manipulate at the genetic level, but the application of CRISPR-Cas9 will change that, allowing scientists to tap into its bio-manufacturing potential. Described in 2012, CRISPR-Cas9 is a groundbreaking technique that...
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British researchers starts to genetically modify human embryos

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Scientists investigating miscarriage will not be able to implant embryos or study them for more than two weeks, says HFEA Britain’s first genetically modified human embryos could be created within months, after scientists were granted permission by the fertility regulator to carry out the procedure. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) regulator approved a licence application by Kathy Niakan, a stem cell scientist at the Francis Crick Institute in London, to perform so-called genome editing on human embryos. The decision permits Niakan to study the embryos for 14 days for research purposes only. It does not permit them to be implanted into women. Niakan’s research is aimed at finding the genes at play in the early days of human...
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CRISPR Used To Repair Blindness-Causing Gene Defect

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Hailed as a breakthrough with the potential to correct genetic mutations and cure life-threatening diseases, the gene editing platform CRISPR/Cas9 may also be able to reverse an inherited condition that causes blindness. Scientists at the Columbia University Medical Center and University of Iowa used CRISPR to repair a genetic mutation responsible for retinitis pigmentosa in induced pluripotent stem cells derived from a patient with the disease. Retinitis pigmentosa is a genetic eye condition that causes the retina to deteriorate, leading to a slow loss of vision and resulting in blindness in at least 1.5 million cases worldwide. There is no cure for retinitis pigmentosa, and the only treatment is vitamin A, which may help slow down the progression of vision loss in...
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New Gene Editing Technology Promises Most Monumental Advance of Humankind Into the Future

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By Dr. Mercola In his 1932 sci-fi novel “Brave New World,” Aldous Huxley explored what life might be like in AD 2540 — a world in which children are born in government owned baby hatcheries. In his world, human freedom is virtually non-existent, as each individual is genetically engineered and psychologically conditioned to fulfill a specific role within one of the five societal classes. Over 500 years before his prediction, we’re already seeing the germination of some of his projections. The technical development that is taking medicine by storm is CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat) — a gene editing tool that has the most profound potential to change the health world as we know it that I have...
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