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Designer dCas9 Systems Compete for CRISPR’s Top Activator

May 28, 2016

Deactivated Cas9 (dCas9) has quickly risen to the spotlight to show that transcriptional regulation is just as fashionable as the ever so popular genome editing. Now, a number of designer systems face-off in a competition to find out who is best at turning on a genome. dCas9 provides the perfect combination of scaffold and targeting […]

Game Of Genomes: Argonaute Threatens Reign Of CRISPR

May 20, 2016

On the island of genome editing, CRISPR is king. Rapidly rising from obscurity, the CRISPR nuclease Cas9 handily dispatched its predecessors, the clumsy TALENs and zinc-finger nucleases. Since then, there has been some strife within the royal family, as better Cas9 proteins and its relatives fought for dominance. Despite this internal turmoil, the CRISPR dynasty […]

Promiscuous Bacteria Swap Epigenetics

May 20, 2016

Humans have good reasons to worry about our epigenetics. DNA decorations have big impacts on our gene expression and health, and we can inadvertently change them through such lifestyle choices as smoking, having parents, or getting old. We multicellular organisms can, at least, breathe easy that epigenetics aren’t contagious, but it turns out the same […]

On Demand Demethylation with dCas9-TET1

May 16, 2016

Every researcher loves a good tool, and lately, it seems that CRISPR might be an even more modular tool than PCR. Attesting to the modularity of CRISPR/Cas9 is catalytically deactivated Cas9 (dCas9). dCas9 has the precision of Cas9, when combined with sgRNA, and can be fused to a modular effector domain that allows for extra […]

Cas9 Magic Opens Locked Chromatin

May 2, 2016

For all the hoopla over CRISPR/Cas9 and its mystical powers, the system still hasn’t passed the most basic test of any magic talisman – waving it over a locked gate while chanting “open sesame”! Fortunately, a band of scientists led by Amira Barkal and Richard Sherwood have now vindicated CRISPR’s powers, using it to open […]

Cello – An Automated Composer For Gene Circuits

April 14, 2016

A lot of the inspiration, terminology, and even scientists in synthetic biology come from electrical engineering and computer science. Hence, we talk about “gene circuits” and “cellular computing”. However, this connection to digital computing hasn’t been much more than a metaphor, at least not until Cello walked on stage. Synthetic biology has been about as […]

Location, Location, Location! Better Fluorescent Labeling For Protein And RNA Localization

April 1, 2016

Location is important. But while we have great GPS tools to locate ourselves in the macro-world, microscopic things can be a bit harder to find. You might think it would be tough to lose something in as tiny a space as the inside of a cell, but that’s what I thought about my keys in […]

CRISPR Trifecta Pays Off Big

March 21, 2016

If basic research drives innovation, the CRISPR-Cas system is one trophy-laden driver. Not long after its unexpected discovery as an obscure prokaryotic defense system against viruses, it has become the hottest thing since recombinant DNA. However, CRISPR’s intricate details still remain somewhat mysterious. Not to fear: basic research into CRISPR rolls on, with new, intriguing, […]

Manipulating DNA Methylation with dCas9-DNMT3A

March 19, 2016

Almost immediately after its inception as a biotechnological tool, CRIPSR/Cas9 showed that it was more than just a genome editor. Deactivated Cas9 (dCas9) is a precision RNA-guided DNA-binding domain with a growing range of effector domains that can be swapped out like LEGO. When it comes to epigenome editing with dCas9, histones have led the […]

Magnetogenetics Goes Deep Into the Brain

March 19, 2016

The ability to control things with magnetic fields is no longer restricted to the mischief of comic book villains. Using synthetic biology to figure out just what neurons do has always been a tricky task, because it has been limited by requiring invasive surgery (optogenetics) or slow on-off kinetics (drugs). But now magnetogenetics emerges as […]

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