CRISPR pioneer Zhang describes new technique to insert genes

Feng Zhang's latest study brings the gene editing field one step closer to correcting and replacing, rather than just disrupting, target genes. The challenge now will be translating the technique from prokaryotic cells to eukaryotic cells.

In a paper published in Science, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard team described a CRISPR-associated transposase (CAST) that can insert specific sequences of DNA into a target site without relying on the target cell's natural DNA repair machinery...