{"id":124279,"date":"2021-06-25T21:23:33","date_gmt":"2021-06-26T04:23:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/dnazymes-could-outperform-protein-enzymes-for-genetic-engineering"},"modified":"2021-06-25T21:23:33","modified_gmt":"2021-06-26T04:23:33","slug":"dnazymes-could-outperform-protein-enzymes-for-genetic-engineering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/dnazymes-could-outperform-protein-enzymes-for-genetic-engineering","title":{"rendered":"DNAzymes could outperform protein enzymes for genetic engineering"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/dnazymes-could-outperform-protein-enzymes-for-genetic-engineering2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Move over, gene-editing proteins\u2014there\u2019s a smaller, cheaper, more specific genetic engineering tool on the block: DNAzymes\u2014small DNA molecules that can function like protein enzymes.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have developed a technique that, for the first time, allows DNAzymes to target and cut double-stranded DNA, overcoming a significant limitation of the technology. DNAzymes have been used in biosensing, DNA computing and many other applications. However, when it comes to genetic engineering applications such as gene editing or <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/gene+therapy\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">gene therapy<\/a>, they have faced a challenge: DNAzymes have only been able to target sites on single-stranded DNA, while the DNA coding for genes in cells is double-stranded. The researchers published their new technique in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDNAzymes have many advantages, including higher stability, smaller size and lower cost than protein enzymes. These advantages perfectly fit the requirement for genetic engineering tools,\u201d said study leader Yi Lu, a professor of chemistry at Illinois. \u201cNo DNAzymes could alter double-stranded DNA until this work. By making that happen, we open the door for DNAzymes to enter the entire world of genetic engineering.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Move over, gene-editing proteins\u2014there\u2019s a smaller, cheaper, more specific genetic engineering tool on the block: DNAzymes\u2014small DNA molecules that can function like protein enzymes. Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have developed a technique that, for the first time, allows DNAzymes to target and cut double-stranded DNA, overcoming a significant limitation of the technology. [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":396,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1902,11,19,1523,412],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bioengineering","category-biotech-medical","category-chemistry","category-computing","category-genetics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124279","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\/396"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124279\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}