A different horse in the race

The nucleases at the heart of gene editing systems such as CRISPR, TALENs and zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs) are key to the methods’ strength, forming a fundamental part of the blocking IP. A group at Yale University has developed an alternative technique based on peptide nucleic acids that requires no DNA-cutting enzyme and might have advantages over the other methods for in vivo applications.

While the enzymes differ between CRISPR, TALENs (transcription activator-like effector nucleases) and ZFNs, they are all responsible for one of the methods’ key vulnerabilities: the risk of cutting the DNA at incorrect locations. ...