Editas, Church further dispute CRISPR off-target report

In response to a letter published in Nature Methods last month that found a high level of off-target mutations in mice treated with CRISPR/Cas9, executives at Editas Medicine Inc. (NASDAQ:EDIT) along with academic CRISPR expert and company advisor George Church published a rebuttal on the preprint server bioRxiv in which they reanalyzed the data and concluded natural genetic variations prior to CRISPR treatment were the likely cause of variants.

In a letter published May 30, researchers said whole genome sequencing data uncovered more than 1,600 genetic differences between two mice treated with CRISPR/Cas9 and a third untreated control. The letter's authors concluded that CRISPR/Cas9 may be much less precise than previously expected (see BioCentury Extra, May 30)...