Improved guide RNAs for prime editing; plus J&J, Synlogic and more

David Liu’s group at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard described in Nature Biotechnology engineered prime editing guide RNAs (epegRNAs) with enhanced stability and editing efficiency that was improved 3 to 4-fold in human cells. Prime editing, a “search-and-replace” genome editing method first detailed by Liu in Nature in 2019, finds the precise place in the genome to edit and replaces the segment of faulty DNA with a correct copy without making cuts. Liu co-founded  Prime Medicine Inc. to develop the technology into therapies.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) discovered a dengue virus inhibitor that reduced viral load in dengue-infected mice. Characterized in Nature, JNJ-A07 inhibits formation of the viral replication complex by blocking the interaction between two viral proteins, NS3 and NS4B...