{"id":121387,"date":"2021-04-09T19:23:51","date_gmt":"2021-04-10T02:23:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2021\/04\/mit-and-ucsf-researchers-create-crispr-on-off-switch-that-controls-gene-expression-without-changing-dna"},"modified":"2021-04-09T19:23:51","modified_gmt":"2021-04-10T02:23:51","slug":"mit-and-ucsf-researchers-create-crispr-on-off-switch-that-controls-gene-expression-without-changing-dna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2021\/04\/mit-and-ucsf-researchers-create-crispr-on-off-switch-that-controls-gene-expression-without-changing-dna","title":{"rendered":"MIT and UCSF researchers create CRISPR \u2018on-off switch\u2019 that controls gene expression without changing DNA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/mit-and-ucsf-researchers-create-crispr-on-off-switch-that-controls-gene-expression-without-changing-dna.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The gene editing system CRISPR-Cas9 makes breaks in DNA strands that are repaired by cells\u2014a process that can be hard to control, resulting in unwanted genetic changes. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) designed an alternative technology that changes gene expression without damaging DNA, and they believe it could be useful for both research and drug development.<\/p>\n<p>The researchers used their system, dubbed CRISPRoff and CRISPRon, to induce pluripotent stem cells to transform into neurons. They also used it to silence the gene that makes the protein Tau, which has been implicated in Alzheimer\u2019s disease. They described their research in the journal Cell.<\/p>\n<p>The MIT and UCSF researchers started by creating a machine made of a protein and small RNAs that guided it to specific spots on strands of DNA. The machine adds \u201cmethyl groups\u201d to genes to silence their expression. The technology can also reverse the process, turning the genes back on by removing the methyl groups.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The gene editing system CRISPR-Cas9 makes breaks in DNA strands that are repaired by cells\u2014a process that can be hard to control, resulting in unwanted genetic changes. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) designed an alternative technology that changes gene expression without damaging DNA, and they [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":513,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1902,11,412,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bioengineering","category-biotech-medical","category-genetics","category-neuroscience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/513"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121387\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}