Sharpening an essential tool for biotechnology
Phys.org
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Scientists at the Department of Energy (DOE)'s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have shown that more than 93% of possible E. coli CRISPR-Cas9 guide RNAs—molecules that direct the gene-editing CRISPR tool to the right spot in DNA—work as intended, a far higher percentage than researchers expected.
They also discovered why a small number of guides fail and developed a simple way to repair them.
The work is published in the journal Nucleic Acids Research.