Linda and her Mom
Before I came along
Well, by this time you know all about the more popular
twists and turns of immunotherapy: PARP
inhibitors, CRISPR-Cas9, tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes – that sort of
thing. If you are at all like me, you
have a vague idea of what they do – but are completely mystified by how they do
it. Well, here is another mystery to add
to your list – prime editing. It’s all
the buzz.
Seems that folks at the Broad Institute of MIT, and other
folks at Harvard, have devised a precise and delicate way to edit the
genome. Unlike previous CRISPR
techniques, which were good for destroying genes, prime editing enables the
investigator to fix them, by engineering a swap of a single base – T for A, say, or A
for C, etc. There are 12 possible ways
that genomic coupling can go wrong, and prime editing can fix them all. Where CRISPR Cas9 is a chain saw, prime editing
is a pair of tweezers.
This work has been published in Nature very recently and has created a stir. There are articles discussing it everywhere
you turn. The link given below is easy
going. I am planning to read around and,
hopefully, figure out how prime editing actually works. Stay tuned. But, in the meantime Google "prime editing", and see what you find.
I doubt that NIH Director Francis Collins could write a dull word if he tried. Here he is explaining prime editing and its significance. Well worth reading.
ReplyDeletehttps://directorsblog.nih.gov/2019/11/05/gene-editing-advance-puts-more-gene-based-cures-within-reach/