New tool for efficiently validating the accuracy of CRISPR-Cas9 reactions
CRISPR-Cas9's popularity continues to grow ever since its first use in genome editing in January, 2013. What makes CRISPR-Cas9 so remarkable is its astonishing efficiency and availability; relatively speaking, it is easy to use. Last year, scientists at the Center for Genome Engineering within the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) published a paper in Cell Stem Cell describing how they corrected an inverted gene sequence which effectively cured a type of Hemophilia. The Jin-Soo Kim group at IBS has also used CRISPR-Cas9 to perform a process without using foreign DNA to modify crops. It is such an incredibly useful tool and holds so much potential for the future that it was the focus of the International Summit on Human Gene Editing in Washington DC in December 2015. The future of CRISPR applications is only limited by the imaginations of the scientists using it.