Genetic Engineering News and Research

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Scientists Engineer the First CRISPR-Based Drug Candidate to Directly Target E. Coli

Many people have experienced infections from E. coli, which are primarily seen as inconvenient and unpleasant.

10 May 2023

New Approach Could Power the Development of Advanced Cell Therapies

A new approach to the genetic engineering of cells promises significant improvements in speed, efficiency, and reduction in cellular toxicity compared to current methods.

2 May 2023

Researchers Identify Genes Responsible for Craniofacial Dysmorphology in Down Syndrome

Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute, King's College London and University College London have shed light on the genetics behind changes in the structure and shape of the face and head in a mouse model of Down Syndrome.

27 Apr 2023

Abnormal Immune Activity in Astrocytes Causes Dementia-Related Cognitive Deficits

People with dementia have protein build-up in astrocytes that may trigger abnormal antiviral activity and memory loss, according to a preclinical study by a team of Weill Cornell Medicine investigators.

21 Apr 2023

Sickle Cell Disease Cure? Prime Editing Offers Hope for Blood Disorder

At St Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, researchers have shown how prime editing could help correct the mutation that results in sickle cell disease in a possibly curative method.

18 Apr 2023

Study helps understand at the cellular level how physical activity contributes to fitness during aging

Regular exercise can guarantee quality of life and longevity, specialists agree. However, exactly how exercise influences the functioning of muscle cells is poorly understood.

30 Mar 2023

Evolution driven by genetic engineering should be known as ‘genetic welding’ to draw scientific and ethical scrutiny

In an opinion paper, evolutionary geneticist Asher Cutter highlights the importance of coining the term ‘genetic welding’ for the anthropogenic manipulation of genetic drive made possible by tools such as CRISPR-Cas9.

29 Mar 2023

Key gene involved in crop alkaline tolerance discovered

Chinese scientists have identified a key gene involved in crop alkaline tolerance that may greatly improve crop yield in sodic environments through the use of genetic engineering.

24 Mar 2023

“Bacterial suicide squad” recruits and activates innate and adaptive antitumor immune responses

Combining discoveries in cancer immunology with sophisticated genetic engineering, Columbia University researchers have created a sort of "bacterial suicide squad" that targets tumors, attracting the host's own immune cells to the cancer to destroy it. The new work, published today in Science Advances, marks a major step forward in efforts to enlist non-pathogenic bacteria to combat cancer.

9 Mar 2023

Study shows why a specific gene mutation has opposite effects on mice and human cancers

A small but significant metabolic difference between human and mouse lung tumor cells, has been discovered by Weill Cornell Medicine researchers, explaining a discrepancy in previous study results, and pointing toward new strategies for developing cancer treatments.

27 Feb 2023

Experts demonstrate clear differences in virulence among the major clades of mpox virus

Scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, have removed a major roadblock to better understanding of mpox (formerly, monkeypox).

15 Feb 2023

Study reveals how two proteins enable drug-resistant MRSA bacterium to secrete toxins

Antimicrobial resistance represents one of the top 10 global public health threats according to the World Health Organization, and scientists have been scrambling to find new tools to cure the most deadly drug-resistant infections.

14 Feb 2023

Gaining insights into human disease biology through CRISPR platforms

In this interview, we speak with Laralynne Przybyla about how she is utilizing CRISPR platforms to understand human disease biology in greater detail.

From Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS) 7 Feb 2023

Taste trumps everything, despite some hesitation about gene-edited table grapes

Despite some hesitation about gene-edited foods, taste trumps everything, according to a Washington State University-led survey of U.S. consumers.

10 Jan 2023

Structure of the complete virion of S. epidermidis–infecting phage revealed

Scientists from the University of Alabama at Birmingham used cryo-electron microscopy to reveal the structure of a bacterial virus in extraordinary detail.

20 Dec 2022

Research could advance our understanding of evolution and the origins of cell motility

The origin of all biological movements, including walking, swimming, or flying, can be traced back to cellular movements; however, little is known about how cell motility arose in evolution.

1 Dec 2022

Improving potential of cellular therapies with CAR T therapy

CAR T cells, or engineered immune cells, have demonstrated to the world the potential of customized immunotherapies to treat blood cancers. Researchers have just released highly encouraging preliminary data for CAR T therapy in a small group of lupus patients.

25 Nov 2022

Gene editing technique makes new kinds of research possible in animal models

Working in teeny tiny worms, scientists can now test the effects of thousands of genetic mutations in one fell swoop.

3 Nov 2022

Genomic research helps in tackling the fatal complications of fungal infections

An important genetic discovery made by a research team led by a University of Massachusetts Amherst scientist sheds new light on the application of the drug caspofungin to treat the deadly fungal infection Aspergillus fumigatus, which claims the lives of about 100,000 severely immunocompromised individuals every year.

7 Oct 2022

Discovery of genes lending tolerance to sugarcane from pests, cold, and drought

Saccharum spontaneum, a species of wild sugarcane with exceptional resistance to biotic stresses like nematodes, fungi, bacteria, and other pests and diseases, as well as abiotic stresses like cold, drought, salinity, and nutritionally deficient soil, was the subject of a study at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in Brazil.

28 Sep 2022