The side effects of CRISPR / Cas9 and the current strategies to mitigate them Summary: The CRISPR/Cas9 system often not only cuts at the intended site of the genome, but also in other unwanted places, which are called off-targets; Off-target events are mainly due to sequence homology between sgRNA and genomic DNA other than the target one, as well as […]
DNA repair mechanisms as the key to engineering human genes by CRISPR/Cas9 Summary: In 2020, CRISPR/Cas9 technology achieved several breakthroughs that are revolutionizing the fields of food and medicine. CRISPR/Cas9 makes a break in DNA, triggering several cell repair mechanisms that researchers exploit to manipulate the genome of the organisms. The DNA repair system referred to as non-homologous end joining […]
Summary: The 2020’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded for discovering one of the most powerful biotechnological tools – the CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors. CRISPR/Cas9 belongs to the machinery of the adaptive immune system of several microorganisms, which provides a proactive defense against invading viruses and other exogenous DNA sequences. Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna exploited the molecular mechanism underlying CRISPR/Cas9 […]