New CRISPR tool accelerates and optimizes genome editing
Originally published by April Wendling, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, on February 13, 2024 CRISPR-COPIES has applications in synthetic biology toolkit characterization, gene therapy, and metabolic engineering. Credit: Aashutosh Boob et al. CRISPR/Cas systems have undergone tremendous advancement in the past decade. These precise genome editing tools have applications ranging from transgenic crop development to gene therapy and beyond. And with their recent development of CRISPR-COPIES , researchers at the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI) are further improving CRISPR's versatility and ease of use . "CRISPR-COPIES is a tool that can quickly identify appropriate chromosomal integration sites for genetic engineering in any organism ," said Huimin Zhao, CABBI Conversion Theme Leader and Steven L. Miller Chair of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (ChBE) at the University of Illinois . "It will accelerate