Small and precise: These are the ideal characteristics for CRISPR systems, the Nobel-prize winning technology used to edit nucleic acids like RNA and DNA.
"There are different types of CRISPR systems, and the one our research was focused on for this study is called CRISPR-Cas13bt3," said Yang Gao, an assistant professor of biosciences and Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas Scholar who helped lead the study."The unique thing about it is that it is very small. Usually, these types of molecules contain roughly 1200 amino acids, while this one only has about 700, so that's already an advantage.
"My lab is a structural biology lab," Yang Gao said."What we are trying to understand is how this system works. So part of our goal here was to be able to see it in three-dimensional space and create a model that would help us explain its mechanism." "This system is totally different: The scissor is already there, but it needs to hook onto the RNA strand at the right target site. To do this, it uses a binding element on these two unique loops that connect the different parts of the protein together."
Once the team figured out how the system works, researchers in the lab of chemical and biomolecular engineer Xue Sherry Gao stepped in to tweak the system in order to increase its precision by testing its activity and specificity in living cells.
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