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How stem cells, CRISPR and skin grafts could help combat cocaine addiction

Michael Irving September 17, 2018

A novel form of treatment could help cut back on a person’s desire for cocaine and reduce its damaging effect in the body. The method involves removing a small patch of skin, introducing genes that produce cocaine-degrading enzymes, and then grafting it back onto the patient.

A new potential treatment for cocaine addiction involves skin grafts, stem cells and gene-editing

Medical

Move over Cas9, there's a new and more accurate CRISPR gene editing enzyme in town

Rich Haridy August 5, 2018

Things are heating up in the world of CRISPR gene editing. Following a series of controversial studies suggesting the process is not as safe or accurate as previously thought, a team of scientists claims a simple enzyme change could help increase the precision and safety of the process.

The Cas12a enzyme is claimed to be safer and more accurate than the traditionally used Cas9 ...

Science

Controversial study raises new doubts over unwanted genetic damage caused by CRISPR

Rich Haridy July 16, 2018

A new research paper has again raised doubts over the safety and accuracy of the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technique. The study suggests that the gene editing process can cause extensive unforeseen and unpredictable alterations to DNA sequences outside of the intended targets.

A study is raising new doubts over the accuracy of the CRISPR-Car9 gene editing technique

Medical

Researchers discover why the CRISPR gene editing system sometimes fails

Rich Haridy July 11, 2018

The CRISPR gene editing revolution is less than a decade old and scientists are still learning how best to deploy this ground-breaking technique. A team has recently discovered why the technique sometimes fails, uncovering a novel insight that will hopefully make future research more efficient.

CRISPR is known to fail about 15 percent of the time and a new study has ...

Medical

Gene editing successfully lowers monkey cholesterol levels

Rich Haridy July 9, 2018

In one of the first examples of gene-editing technology being effectively used to knock out the expression of a gene in non-human primates, researchers have lowered the blood cholesterol in monkeys by disabling a single gene in the liver.

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania have lowered the blood cholesterol in monkeys using gene editing

Medical

New CRISPR-Gold technique reduces behavioral autism symptoms in mice

Rich Haridy June 25, 2018

A remarkable new study has successfully used the CRISPR gene editing system to edit a specific gene in mice engineered to have fragile X syndrome, a disorder often related to autism. The single gene edit in the live mice resulted in significant improvements in repetitive and obsessive behaviors.

Using gold nanoparticles the researchers successfully edited a single gene associated with repetitive behaviors

Medical

Chinese scientists test CRISPR on monkeys and find no off-target mutations

Rich Haridy June 18, 2018

A team of Chinese scientists has conducted the first full assessment of the effects of CRISPR on non-human primates. The study set out to study whether the CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing technique results in off-target mutations in rhesus macaque monkeys.

The first genome-wide study in monkeys found that CRISPR does not cause unintended off-target mutations

Medical

Major research reveals CRISPR gene-editing could increase cancer risk in cells

Rich Haridy June 11, 2018

Two new studies are raising concerns that the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing system could trigger an increased cancer risk in cells. With human trials using the technique starting this year, the scientists behind these new studies urge researchers to be aware of this cancer-driving mechanism.

New research suggests that the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technique could increase the risk of cancer in ...

Medical

FDA hits pause on one of the first US human clinical trials to use CRISPR

Rich Haridy May 31, 2018

The CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing system has revolutionized medical research, but since its discovery in 2012 progress towards human trials has been slow. Now another setback has appeared with the FDA pausing one of the first human trials using the technique in the United States before it even begins.

One of the first CRISPR human trials in the United States has been paused by the ...

Medical

Move over, CRISPR: MAGESTIC makes for gentler gene-editing

Michael Irving May 10, 2018

Allowing scientists to make cut-and-paste edits to an organism’s genome, the CRISPR gene-editing tool may be powerful, but it’s still a bit clumsy. Now, researchers have developed a neater new version dubbed MAGESTIC, which they describe as swapping the scissors for a word processor.

MAGESTIC is a new gene-editing technology, which is claimed to be more like a word processor ...