Researchers at the Broad Institute of Harvard University have just reported in the scientific journal Nature Biotechnology an improved version of prime editing, the highly accurate genome editing method developed in 2019 by the same team. This new version, called twin prime editing (twinPE), allows insertion of DNA fragments of the size of a gene into specific sites of the...
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Gene therapy aims to recover the normal function of the cells of a patient to obtain a therapeutic benefit by introducing genetic material. The benefit being, for example, in improving the immune system response to fight cancer or correcting a genetic disorder by rescuing gene function. Scientists harness the natural ability of viruses to transfer their genetic material to infected...
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Mutations in the RHO gene are the main cause of dominant forms of retinitis pigmentosa (RP). RHO dictates the production of rhodopsin, a transmembrane protein present in large quantities in the outer segment of rod photoreceptor cells which, together with 11-cis-retinal, initiates the phototransduction cascade. Mutations in RHO often cause photoreceptor toxicity because they negatively affect the function of the...
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Researchers from the Seoul National University (Korea) have applied for the first an improved genome-editing methodology, named prime editing to correct the genetic defects of two animal models of human disease: a liver disease (hereditary tyrosinemia) and an eye disease (Leber congenital amaurosis). This high-precision genome-editing tool, developed only two years ago by the team of David R. Liu from...
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Editas Medicine CRISPR therapy for CEP290 gene Editas Medicine, a company specialising in the development of gene editing therapies, has announced the recruitment of paediatric patients to the Brilliance trial. This phase 1/2 clinical trial began last year and is based on the CRISPR gene editing methodology to excise the intron mutation c.2991+1655A>G, which produces an aberrant messenger RNAs (see...
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The Dutch biotechnology company ProQR has just presented (March 2021) the first results of a clinical trial, named Stellar, with QR-421a, an antisense oligonucleotide designed to stop vision loss or restore vision in Usher syndrome IIA and non-syndromic retinitis pigmentosa patients due to USH2A exon 13 mutations. The therapeutical approach aims to exclude the exon 13 coding region in the...
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