New CRISPR system for targeting RNA
Researchers from MIT and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, as well as the National Institutes of Health, Rutgers University at New Brunswick, and the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, have characterized a new CRISPR system that targets RNA, rather than DNA. The new approach has the potential to open a powerful avenue in cellular manipulation. 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...