
Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI)

Rationale engineering generates a compact new tool for gene therapy
Scientists at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard have re-engineered a compact RNA-guided enzyme they found in bacteria into an efficient, programmable editor of human DNA. The protein they created, called NovaIscB, can be adapted to make precise changes to the genetic code, modulate the…

An ancient RNA-guided system could simplify delivery of gene editing therapies
A vast search of natural diversity has led scientists at MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard to uncover ancient systems with potential to expand the genome editing toolbox. These systems, which the researchers call TIGR (Tandem Interspaced Guide RNA) systems, use RNA to guide them to specific…