SOUPED-UP CRISPR GENE EDITOR REPLICATES AND SPREADS LIKE A VIRUS

Summary from the TLDR newsletter

A team at the University of California Berkeley and collaborators have modified CRISPR-Cas9 to replicate and spread to other cells. The scientists added genetic instructions for cells to make a virus-like transporter that can encapsulate the CRISPR machinery, and once manufactured in treated cells, the CRISPR cargo ships to neighboring cells. The upgraded editor is roughly three times more effective at gene editing lab-grown cells compared to standard CRISPR. It increases the safety profile of gene-editing treatments and potentially expands the technology to tissues and organs that are more challenging to genetically alter than the liver.