May 3 Preclinical Quick Takes: CRISPR, Cincinnati Children's, Chromatin

Small molecule CRISPR inhibitors are here
Two groups have reported small molecule inhibitors this week that could be used to control CRISPR-based gene editing, as the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency looks for ways to control gene editing. In a Cell paper, a Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard team led by Amit Choudhary identified two small molecules through a dual assay that disrupted binding of Cas9 to DNA and inhibited DNA cleavage. A team from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia revealed a small molecule kill switch for Cas9 on Wednesday (see "CHOP Group Achieves Temporal Control of Gene Editing with Small Molecules").

Choudhary's team is one of seven groups receiving $65 million combined in 2017-21 from DARPA’s Safe Genes program to identify technologies that can control gene editing and gene drives...