Science and Technology Daily, Beijing, February 24 (Reporter Liu Xia) According to a report by the Physicist Organization Network on the 23rd, American researchers wrote in the latest issue of "Molecular Cell" magazine that they have invented a new gene editing technology that can be Editing cutting points or editing points in chronological order is expected to promote the development of cancer research and other fields.
The “popular fried chicken” CRISPR in the field of gene editing enables scientists to change the sequence of DNA in cells or add desired sequences or genes.
CRISPR uses an enzyme called Cas9, which is like scissors, cutting precisely at relevant locations in DNA.
Scientists discovered the gene editing capabilities of the CRISPR system as early as 10 years ago, and were amazed at its ability to guide CRISPR to cut almost any DNA sequence in a cell or target multiple different sites in a cell very simply.
Bradley Merrill, the lead author of the latest paper and an associate professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Medicine, said: "Nonetheless, the CRISPR-based editing system we currently use has an obvious shortcoming: all editing or editing Everything is done at once, there is no way to guide them one by one in order."
Merrill and his colleagues' new genetic tool uses special molecules called guide RNAs to deliver the Cas9 enzyme inside the cell and determine the exact DNA sequence that Cas9 will cut.
They call this specially designed guide RNA molecule "proGuides", which can use Cas9 to edit DNA in chronological order.
Although proGuide is still in the prototype stage, Merrill and his colleagues plan to further develop the concept and hope that researchers can use this technology as soon as possible.
He said: "The ability to sequentially activate Cas9 at multiple sites introduces a new tool for biological research and genetic engineering."
He further explained that human development and disease evolution are related to time, but the current methods of genetic research on these processes cannot be effectively used in conjunction with time factors.
Our system can perform gene editing in a pre-programmed manner, allowing researchers to better study time-sensitive processes, such as how cancer develops from several gene mutations, and the order in which these mutations occur will affect the disease What kind of impact etc.
Editor-in-chief
Although CRISPR is known for its convenience and ease of use, its relatively short history of development also means that this technology has great room for improvement-for example, editing or cutting must be done all at once. A problem that cannot be ignored. Constrained by this, scientists cannot operate sequentially one by one, nor can they consider the element of "time". Nowadays, the concept of "preprogrammable" gene magic scissors has emerged, and chronological editing has become possible, which will further promote people to understand the close relationship between the sequence of gene mutations and various diseases.