U.S. researchers have discovered how to dramatically lower the error rate of an advanced CRISPR-based genome editing approach, which could aid in the treatment of many genetic diseases.

The revised prime editing strategy, outlined in Nature , could improve the safety of gene therapy for many inherited diseases.

Prime editors make programmed genomic modifications, creating functional genes out of those that were previously faulty, but there is a small chance that harmful errors are created as byproducts.

These insertion and deletion (indel) mutations generated instead of the intended edit within a fraction of the targeted cells can result in DNA sequences that are unpredictable and can be possibly damaging, such as promoting tumor growth.

But using the new approach, researchers were

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