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CRISPR model building

By Chris Cain, Senior Writer

Boston researchers have used the CRISPR-Cas9 genome modification platform to simultaneously engineer mutations into multiple genes in mice.1 The results from the rapid, one-step process provide the best evidence to date for the potential of this method to revolutionize the creation of complex disease models.

Earlier this year, five separate teams reported on how the CRISPR (clustered, regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats)-Cas9 (CRISPR-associated protein 9) system could be adapted to engineer site-specific mutations in the genomes of mammals, bacteria and zebrafish.2-7 The method was derived from a recently identified acquired immunity-like system in bacteria, in which CRISPR-associated proteins, including Cas9, are guided by short CRISPR-encoded RNAs to cleave homologous foreign DNA contained within plasmids or bacteriophages.

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    CRISPR model building

    Boston researchers have used the CRISPR-Cas9 genome modification platform to simultaneously engineer mutations into multiple genes in mice. The results from the rapid, one-step process provide the best evidence to date for the potential of this method to revolutionize the creation of complex disease models.

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