CRISPRCas9

CRISPRCas9

CRISPR-Cas9 is a method of genome editing that exploits a natural DNA-snipping enzyme in bacteria, called Cas9 (CRISPR-associated protein 9) to target and edit particular genes. CRISPR stands for Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats, which are segments of DNA of a particular structure found widely in bacteria and archaea (prokaryotes). In the wild, the CRISPR-Cas9 system is part of the prokaryotic immune system, which can snip out of the genome DNA acquired from foreign sources such as phages (bacterial viruses). The same molecular machinery is now being used to enable genetic material to be cut from and pasted into the genomes of other organisms, including eukaryotes such as humans. It might offer a tool for curing genetically based diseases.

DNA has become a versatile polymeric substrate for making nanotechnological structures and artificial molecular-scale machinery for computation, pattern formation, and nanoscale assembly. For several decades now, these efforts have drawn on methods developed in and for biotechnology, and similarly they are likely to find ways of exploiting the advantages of the new technique called CRISPR/Cas9 for manipulating DNA. #CRISPRCas9

CRISPR-Cas9 is a method of genome editing that exploits a natural DNA-snipping enzyme in bacteria, called Cas9 (CRISPR-associated protein 9) to target and edit particular genes. CRISPR stands for Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats, which are segments of DNA of a particular structure found widely in bacteria and archaea (prokaryotes). In the wild, the CRISPR-Cas9 system is part of the prokaryotic immune system, which can snip out of the genome DNA acquired from foreign sources such as phages (bacterial viruses). The same molecular machinery is now being used to enable genetic material to be cut from and pasted into the genomes of other organisms, including eukaryotes such as humans. It might offer a tool for curing genetically based diseases.

DNA has become a versatile polymeric substrate for making nanotechnological structures and artificial molecular-scale machinery for computation, pattern formation, and nanoscale assembly. For several decades now, these efforts have drawn on methods developed in and for biotechnology, and similarly they are likely to find ways of exploiting the advantages of the new technique called CRISPR/Cas9 for manipulating DNA.

'Breakthrough' in malaria fight

-->

Australian scientists have identified a potential treatment to combat malaria.

Researchers in Melbourne believe their discovery could be a major breakthrough in the fight against the disease.
The malaria parasite produces a glue-like substance which makes the cells it infects sticky, so they cannot be flushed through the body.
The researchers have shown removing a protein responsible for the glue can destroy its stickiness, and undermine the parasite's defence.
The malaria parasite - Plasmodium falciparum - effectively hijacks the red blood cells it invades, changing their shape and physical properties dramatically.
Among the changes it triggers is the production of the glue-like substance, which enables the infected cells to stick to the walls of the blood vessels.
This stops them being pased through the spleen, where the parasites would usually be destroyed by the immune system.
Painstaking tests
The Australian team developed mutant strains of P. falciparum, each lacking one of 83 genes known or predicted to play a role in the red cell remodeling process.
Systematically testing each one, they were able to show that eight proteins were involved in the production of the key glue-like substance.
Removing just one of these proteins stopped the infected cells from attaching themselves to the walls of blood vessels.
Professor Alan Cowman, a member of the research team at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, said targeting the protein with drugs - or possibly a vaccine - could be key to fighting malaria.
"If we block the stickiness we essentially block the virulence or the capacity of the parasite to cause disease," he said.
Malaria is preventable and curable, but can be fatal if not treated promptly. The disease kills more than a million people each year. Many of the victims are young children in sub-Saharan Africa.