New Method To Manipulate Genetic Material Developed By Consortium

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New Method To Manipulate Genetic Material Developed By Consortium

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/116121.php

A multi-institutional team of researchers, including scientists at

the University of Minnesota Medical School, have developed a powerful

tool for genomic research and medicine. The robust method will allow

researchers to generate synthetic enzymes that can target and

manipulate DNA sequences for inactivation or repair.

The potential for discovery is great, said Dan Voytas, Ph.D.,

director of the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center for Transposon

Research, and co-investigator on the research. In human therapeutics,

researchers may aim to correct genetic disorders or diseases, and in

plants, scientists may devise crops that are more resistant to

pathogens, yield more product, and better combat stress.

In the July 25 issue of Molecular Cell, researchers including Voytas

describe an efficient method to induce specific genomic modifications

in many types of cells - including plants and humans. This is the

first time the method will be publicly available and free to

researchers.

" This method is going to be a turning point in the way we manipulate

genomes, " Voytas said. " It will allow any researcher to make a change

to genetic material. "

More specifically, the article shows researchers how to engineer

customized zinc-finger nucleases (ZFNs), which can be used to induce

specific genomic modifications in many types of cells.

" Recent work has shown that ZFNs can alter genes with high efficiency

in cells from plants or model organisms like fruit flies, roundworms,

and zebra fish, and in human cells, " said J. Joung, M.D.,

Ph.D., assistant professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School and

director of the Molecular Pathology Unit at MGH, principal

investigator of the study. " Our method will enable academic

researchers to rapidly create high quality ZFNs for genes of interest

and will stimulate use of this technology in biological research and

potentially gene therapy. "

Currently available methods for generating ZFNs are either

inefficient or exceed the capabilities of all but a handful of

laboratories in the world.

L. Maeder of the Joung lab led an effort by researchers from

six institutions that demonstrated how this new method (termed OPEN,

for Oligomerized Pool ENgineering) can rapidly generate ZFNs that

induce alterations at sites in three biologically important human

genes and a plant gene. ZFNs made by the new OPEN method - which

utilizes a new archive of reagents that will be made publicly

available by the Zinc Finger Consortium - were so efficient that they

could modify as many as four copies of a gene in human cells and two

copies in plant cells.

" Our study provides the first evidence that ZFNs can make specific

changes in plant genes with high efficiency and opens a new avenue

for plant genetic modification, " Voytas said. At the University of

Minnesota, Voytas and his team are interested in modifying plant

genes for crop improvement.

" With the development of OPEN, many more academic labs will be able

to construct, test and use ZFNs in their biological research

projects, " Joung said. " OPEN should also stimulate additional

research into the potential application of ZFNs for gene therapy of

single-gene disorders, such as sickle cell anemia and cystic

fibrosis. "