Scientists have discovered a powerful gene-targeting system in viruses. Billions of years old, VIPR seems to predate CRISPR and may be even more effective.

CRISPR-Cas provides RNA-mediated adaptive immunity, but how its first RNA-guided effector arose is unclear. In this study, we report the discovery of Viral Interference Programmable Repeat (VIPR) syst...

We treat viral antagonism as a discovery tool for host biology to reveal fundamental mechanisms of immune signaling and new opportunities for therapeutic intervention.

Nature Biotechnology - An RNA-guided ‘chromatin shredder’ for selective cell killing

Researchers used artificial intelligence to design functional CRISPR enzymes not seen in nature.

The design of RNA-guided nucleases with properties not limited by evolution can expand programmable genome-editing capabilities. However, generating diverse multidomain proteins with robust enzymatic ...

AI-Assisted Technique Allows Scientists to Design New, Functional Genome Editors Beyond What Can Be Found in Nature - Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI)

The design of RNA-guided nucleases with properties not limited by evolution can expand programmable genome-editing capabilities. However, generating diverse multidomain proteins with robust enzymatic ...

An innovative chromatin-shredding technique shown to destroy cancer cells carrying a prevalent mutation while keeping healthy cells intact.

Nature - Targeting Cancer-Specific Mutations with RNA-Triggered Chromatin Shredding

A multiplexed RNA detection method exploits crRNA-dependent variability in Cas13a activity on RNA targets for kinetic barcoding and can be used to distinguish among SARS-CoV-2 variants in clinical sam...

The idea of self-amplifying gene editing is to get cells to pass on packages of CRISPR machinery to their neighbours, boosting the effect

A chemical engineer, an electrical engineer, a biochemist, a roboticist and a laser dynamicist are among the new members.

TnpB is a compact RNA-guided endonuclease and evolutionary ancestor of CRISPR-Cas12 that offers a promising platform for genome engineering. However, the genome-editing activity of TnpBs remains limit...

A multiscale photoproximity labeling proteomics workflow captures dynamic neighborhoods of extracellular and intracellular epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor interactomes during early, middle and late signaling upon activation by EGF.

Across all domains of life, immune systems rely on nucleotide-based signaling molecules to activate defense responses. In a recent Cell Host & Microbe study, Doherty, Nomburg, and colleagues identify ...

Explore how viruses evade immune responses by developing enzymes that disrupt molecular alarm signals in host cells.

Cyclic dinucleotides (CDNs) and other short oligonucleotides play fundamental roles in immune system activation in organisms ranging from bacteria to …

Antiviral immune systems diversify by integrating new genes into existing pathways, creating new mechanisms of viral resistance. We identified genes encoding a predicted nuclease paired with a trypsin-like protease repeatedly acquired by multiple, ...