A new CRISPR system that targets RNA, rather than DNA. Whereas DNA editing makes permanent changes to the genome of a cell, the CRISPR-based RNA-targeting approach may allow researchers to make temporary changes that can be adjusted up or down, and with greater specificity and functionality than existing methods for RNA interference. In a study published today in Science, Feng Zhang and colleagues at the Broad Institute and the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, along with co-authors Eugene Koonin and his colleagues at the NIH, and Konstantin Severinov of Rutgers University at New Brunswick and Skoltech, report the identification and functional characterization of C2c2, an RNA-guided enzyme capable of targeting and degrading RNA.
On Thursday, Researchers announced the discovery of a new system to edit RNA using the revolutionary gene-editing technology CRISPR. Whereas CRISPR Cas9, the full name of the system that has taken the bioengineering world by storm, is best adapted to edit DNA, a new paper published Thursday in the journal Science details a new system, called C2c2, to use CRISPR to edit RNA. The researchers, including Feng Zhang of the Broad Institute and Eugene V. Koonin, a senior investigator at the National Center for Biotechnology Information, say their research is highly preliminary, but the capacity to easily target and edit RNA could have a range of applications separate from DNA editing. “There are some
