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 |  Subject: Defense Department Pours $65 Million Into INHUMAN CRISPR TECH For “Revolutionary Gene Editing Platform” And Bio Weapons  Tue Jul 25, 2017 8:37 am | |
| Defense Department Pours $65 Million Into INHUMAN CRISPR TECH For “Revolutionary Gene Editing Platform” And Bio Weapons
July 25, 2017 by SkyWatch Editor
 The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency today announced $65 million in funding to seven projects around the country – including one led by UC Berkeley – to improve the safety and accuracy of gene editing. UC Berkeley will work with UC San Francisco and Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, California, to develop better ways to insert gene-editing molecules – including CRISPR-Cas9 – into living cells; explore applications of CRISPR proteins other than the popular Cas9, such as RNA-snipping Cas13a; discover more anti-CRISPR proteins that can be used to keep gene editing under tight control; and employ these new and improved tools… “If successful, we will create a revolutionary platform for using and controlling gene editing for both clinical and biotechnology applications, with wide-ranging benefits… and by demonstrating that gene-editing activity can be prophylactically or therapeutically shut down, discouraging its potential intentional misuse” […] “Our focus is not only to make new Cas proteins that are more accurate, but also ones that don’t necessarily cut the genome,” said Kyle Watters, a postdoctoral researcher in Doudna’s lab who is overseeing some of the work. “These engineered Cas proteins might instead prevent certain genes from being expressed, for example, so that even though they change fundamental processes in your body… (READ MORE) |
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