Experts Redesign CRISPR to Engineer Massive Quantities of Cells

Nature Biotechnology reports a new version of the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing system that eases the process of re-engineering large amounts of cells for therapeutic applications. The technique, designed by Gladstone Institutes and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), allows scientists to introduce long DNA sequences to precise locations in the genomes of cells at significantly high efficiencies without the need for delivery systems.

"One of our goals for many years has been to put lengthy DNA instructions into a targeted site in the genome in a way that doesn't depend on viral vectors," said Dr. Alex Marson, Director of the Gladstone-UCSF Institute of Genomic Immunology and senior author of the new study. "This is a huge step toward the next generation of safe and effective cell therapies."

Aside from the description of the new technique, their paper also indicates how to generate CAR-T cells, which can help combat multiple myeloma and rewrite gene sequences where mutations can cause rare inherited immune diseases.

Read the original article from News-Medical.Net.