Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories are using genetic resequencing tools to find ways to stop the virus behind the COVID-19 pandemic. Biochemist Joe Schoeniger and virologist Oscar Negrete’s work involves genetically engineering a deployable antiviral countermeasure for COVID-19 using CRISPR-based technology. “The goal is to find new ‘reloadable’ countermeasures for viral outbreaks that do not…
NIH says still no drug proven safe, effective for treating COVID-19
The National Institutes of Health today announced the publishing of new COVID-19 treatment guidelines, and the expert panel producing the guidelines says no drug has yet been proven safe and effective against the virus. NIH has the new guidelines posted online at covid19treatmentguidelines.nih.gov — and says it will update the guidelines often as new peer-reviewed…
Sanofi, GSK seek to have an adjuvanted COVID-19 vaccine ready by late 2021
Sanofi and GSK recently announced that they have signed a letter of intent to collaborate on an adjuvanted vaccine for COVID-19 — with a goal of having the vaccine available by the second half of 2021. Sanofi is contributing its S-protein COVID-19 antigen. The company’s recombinant DNA technology produced an exact genetic match to proteins…
Mammoth preparing to seek EUA for CRISPR COVID-19 test
CRISPR-startup Mammoth Biosciences will file for an emergency use application from the FDA after publishing a study in Nature Biotechnology that suggests its platform can detect SARS-CoV-2 from a respiratory swab RNA extracts in less than 45 minutes. The company says the paper contains the first peer-reviewed data using CRISPR diagnostics for COVID-19. In a…
SGI-DNA touts its automated gene printer for coronavirus vaccine development
Synthetic biology company SGI-DNA is touting its efforts to accelerate research in the creation of vaccines for SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing the COVID-19 pandemic. The San Diego-based company said in a news release last month that it built the genes thought to be critical to developing successful vaccines against the virus and made those tools…
Evonetix raises $30m for desktop gene synthesis tech
Evonetix announced today that it closed a $30 million Series B funding round as it develops technology for enabling gene synthesis on a chip. The Cambridge, U.K.-based synthetic biology company said the funding round, led by new investor Foresite Capital, is slated to fund the company through to the introduction of its desktop DNA platform,…
Sanofi eyes Synthrox purchase
Sanofi (NYSE:SNY) announced today that it is planning to tender an offer to acquire all outstanding common stock shares of clinical-stage biotech company Synthorx. The agreement and plan of merger between the two companies was announced on Dec. 7 and the offer is being made pursuant to that. Sanofi said it stands to acquire the common…
Horizon Discovery announces partnership with Human Protein Atlas
Horizon Discovery Group (LSE: HZD) announced this week that the Human Protein Atlas will use Horizon’s CRISPR-edited knockout cell models to further expand the knowledge available in its Cell Atlas program. Horizon specialized in the application of gene editing and gene modulation for cell line engineering. Knockout cell models offer the possibility for an enhanced…
‘Hubble Space Telescope’ for genomics could yield new drugs, materials to save species
Researchers in Spain have developed a new genomics tool that can classify how species are related to each other at far larger scales than previously possible and may yield new drugs, materials and foods — and pinpoint strategies for saving species at risk of extinction. Heralded as a “Hubble Space Telescope” of genomics, the technology…
GenapSys secures $90 million in bid to upend sequencing
Following the raising of a $90 million Series C, privately held GenapSys will begin rolling out a line of low cost electronic-based genetic sequencing machines that it says could upend the research and clinical testing industries. CEO Hesaam Esfandyarpour says the Redwood City, Calif.–based company’s Sequencer, a table-top device that carries a price tag that’s…
New Genetic Weapons Challenge Sickle Cell Disease
Help for patients with sickle cell disease may soon come from gene editing to fix the mutation that causes the disease and boost the patient’s own protective fetal hemoglobin. New research shows that using CRISPR-Cas9 and a corrective short DNA template to repair the sickle cell mutation in a patient’s hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) could…
Natural Gene Therapy for Intractable Skin Disease Discovered
Pathogenic gene mutations causing a type of intractable skin disease can be eliminated from some parts of patients’ skin as they age, according to Hokkaido University researchers and their collaborators in Japan. This represents a form of natural gene therapy. In general, there is no fundamental treatment method capable of curing diseases caused by gene…
Estimating the Efficacy and Cost of Curative Gene Therapy for Beta-Thalassemia
Gene therapy offers the promise of a cure for beta-thalassemia and a new study has shown that it is associated with fewer complications and hospital admissions over 2 years than treatment by allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). The study, which analyzes and compares the effectiveness and cost of gene therapy versus (HSCT) in patients…
Using CRISPR, Researchers Discover Treatment for Box Jellyfish Sting
Gene-Editing Technology May Produce Resistant Virus in Cassava Plant
New ‘Hairpin’ Approach Takes CRISPR to Next-Level Accuracy
Researchers may have found a way to significantly improve CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology. Biomedical engineers from Duke University have added a short tail to the guide RNA that folds back and binds onto itself to create a lock that can only be undone by the targeted DNA sequence, ultimately improving CRISPR’s accuracy by an average…
Russian Scientists Alter 3D Genome Using ‘Small Molecules’
Researchers have discovered that the spatial organization of the genome can be altered using small molecule compounds which are considered as promising anti-cancer drugs. This work opens up the prospect of developing a new class of anticancer epigenetic drugs that alter the 3D genome. The results were published in Nature Communications. The properties of a living…
CRISPR, Transistor Combo Rapidly Detects Genetic Mutations
A new handheld device that combines CRISPR technology with graphene-based electronic transistors can rapidly detect specific genetic mutations. Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley and the Keck Graduate Institute of The Claremont Colleges have created the CRISPR-Chip device that can in just a few minutes diagnose genetic diseases or evaluate the accuracy of other…
Research Suggests New Drug Targets for Osteoporosis
For Infection-fighting Cells, a Guideline for Expanding the Troops
Gene Identified That Increases Risk of Antibiotic Reaction
Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and colleagues have identified a gene that increases the risk for a severe and potentially life-threatening reaction to the commonly prescribed antibiotic vancomycin. Routine testing for this gene could improve patient safety and reduce unnecessary avoidance of other antibiotics, they reported in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.…
New Strategy Improves Efficiency of CRISPR-Cas9 Genome Editing
Genomics Researchers Say ‘Junk’ DNA Key to Advancing Medicine
New Protein Could Deliver Next Gene-Editing Tool
While CRISPR Cas9 remains a mainstay in the genomics world, researchers have now found a much smaller protein called CasX that could be used for gene editing. In 2017, a research team from the University of California Berkeley discovered in some of the world’s smallest bacteria a protein similar to Cas9 but substantially smaller, which…
