Remember that Shoukhrat Mitalipov lab paper on the use of CRISPR in human embryos? It’s back in the news. One of the biggest stories of 2017 centered on a Nature paper (Ma, et al., see my quick, initial review shortly after it was published here) from Mitalipov’s lab claiming both efficient repair of a disease-causing …
Mitalipov rebuts CRISPR pub critiques: strengthens case, but puzzles remain Read More »
It’s an odd confluence of events this week that (A) the Nuffield Council, an ethics think tank, gives a thumbs up in a new report to heritable human genetic modification that would probably include using CRISPR in the same week that (B) a new paper reports that CRISPR can cause unpredictable genomic damage and several other concerning reports …
Mixed Nuffield Council Report Too Aspirational on Human Genetic Modification Read More »
If it seems to you like dramatic cautionary tales about CRISPR accompanied by all sorts of media are coming at us more frequently, it’s not your imagination. In the latest yesterday, it was reported in a new paper led by Allan Bradley that CRISPR-Cas9 results in sometimes large-scale chromosomal lesions at or even away from the …
Mulling over latest CRISPR tumult, this one from Nat Biot pub on DNA lesions Read More »
Over the weekends I try to catch up on more diverse reading and sometimes come up with a list of stuff I want to get to during this time, but I also put together weekend reads usually on Fridays as a kind of TGIF on The Niche for the wider audience here. So here’s the …
TGIF weekend reads: senolytics, new CRISPR, stem cells, & 3 wacky things Read More »
Heritable CRISPR to be tried in humans sooner or later…or never? Will someone somewhere in the world try to use CRISPR gene editing or related technology to introduce heritable genetic changes into actual human beings in the next decade? I’m not talking about gene editing viable human embryos just for research which is already ongoing, …
Poll: heritable CRISPR tried in humans in next 10 years? Read More »
Could potential associated cancer risks claw into CRISPR’s potential? The short answer from both previous and new data is that while CRISPR gene editing impacts the P53 pathway, which is involved in cancer along with having many other functions, this news is neither too surprising nor a fatal flaw, but some caution is warranted. CRISPR …
Could Cancer Risk Claw CRISPR’s Potential? Some Balanced Perspectives Read More »
By Anna Everette The title of this article is partially borrowed from a fascinating Lightning Presentation delivered by John Doench of Broad Institute at CRISPRcon this year. In his talk, Mr. Doench pointed out how we’ve been looking up to this promising technology for a while now, hoping it will deliver the anticipated results (see …
The Hope of CRISPRcon: Year 2, Guest Post by Anna Everette Read More »
Some in CRISPR-Cas9-land who are focused on potential future clinical applications are kind of rejoicing or at least sighing a breath of relief. This upbeat swing in the atmosphere (from investors especially) was sparked by retraction of that paper, the one initially reporting tons of supposed off-target CRISPR-Cas9 activity in mice, which turned out to be a “nothing …
Analysis: human immunity to Cas9 bigger #CRISPR therapeutic hurdle than off-targets? Read More »
There’s much more to CRISPR-Cas9 than just gene editing and a new paper from the lab of Rudy Jaenisch in Cell highlights that in an exciting way. It reports epigenetic reversal of a Fragile X Syndrome phenotype in induced pluripotent stem cell (IPSC) neurons. Fragile X Syndrome is a neurological disorder in boys resulting from CGG repeat …
Journal club: Jaenisch lab paper on epigenetic CRISPR-Cas9 rescue of Fragile X in a dish Read More »
The news that CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing in its current form may not work in a substantial fraction of people due to many of us having immunity to Cas9 came as a shock to many, but if you think about it, maybe it’s not so surprising. I don’t see it as the end of the world. A (preprint) from …
Keep calm & CRISPR on: perspectives on report of human Cas9 immunity Read More »