{"id":126530,"date":"2021-08-20T09:22:42","date_gmt":"2021-08-20T16:22:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2021\/08\/crispr-pioneer-feng-zhangs-latest-work-delivers-mrna-gene-therapy-with-a-human-protein"},"modified":"2021-08-20T09:22:42","modified_gmt":"2021-08-20T16:22:42","slug":"crispr-pioneer-feng-zhangs-latest-work-delivers-mrna-gene-therapy-with-a-human-protein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2021\/08\/crispr-pioneer-feng-zhangs-latest-work-delivers-mrna-gene-therapy-with-a-human-protein","title":{"rendered":"CRISPR pioneer Feng Zhang\u2019s latest work delivers mRNA, gene therapy with a human protein"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/crispr-pioneer-feng-zhangs-latest-work-delivers-mrna-gene-therapy-with-a-human-protein.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>COVID-19 mRNA vaccines and existing gene therapies, including those built with the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing tool, are delivered into cells with viral vectors or lipid nanoparticles. A research team led by CRISPR pioneer Feng Zhang, Ph.D., of the Broad Institute has developed a new mRNA delivery system that harnesses a human protein.<\/p>\n<p>The system, dubbed SEND, leverages the ability of a human protein called PEG10 to bind to its own mRNA and form a protective capsule around it. In a new study published in <a href=\"https:\/\/science.sciencemag.org\/lookup\/doi\/10.1126\/science.abg6155\">Science<\/a>, Zhang and colleagues engineered PEG10 to take on RNA cargoes of their choice and successfully delivered the system to mouse and human cells.<\/p>\n<p>The findings support SEND as an efficient delivery platform for RNA-based gene therapies that can be repeatedly dosed, the researchers suggested. Because SEND uses a protein that\u2019s produced naturally in the body, it may not trigger immune responses that can render gene therapies ineffective, the team said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>COVID-19 mRNA vaccines and existing gene therapies, including those built with the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing tool, are delivered into cells with viral vectors or lipid nanoparticles. A research team led by CRISPR pioneer Feng Zhang, Ph.D., of the Broad Institute has developed a new mRNA delivery system that harnesses a human protein. The system, dubbed SEND, [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":621,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,412,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-genetics","category-nanotechnology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126530","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\/621"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126530\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}