Evolving a new CRISPR system to insert genes

evoCAST (credit: George Lampe)

Recently, David Liu won the Breakthrough Prize for inventing two tools for precise, small-scale genome editing (base editing and prime editing). However, in some cases, rather than correcting a mutation within a defective gene, it may be more practical to insert a fully functional copy of the gene. That’s the mission of evoCAST, the latest invention from the Broad Institute near Boston, a hub for next-generation CRISPR tools.

Continue reading