{"id":234083,"date":"2026-03-26T02:24:27","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T07:24:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/rna-guided-crispr-system-activates-gene-expression"},"modified":"2026-03-26T02:24:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T07:24:27","slug":"rna-guided-crispr-system-activates-gene-expression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/rna-guided-crispr-system-activates-gene-expression","title":{"rendered":"RNA-guided CRISPR system activates gene expression"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

In back-to-back studies published in Nature<\/i>, researchers from Purdue University and Columbia University report a naturally evolved gene-editing system that can activate genes, offering an advantage over existing CRISPR gene-editing systems that merely find and cut DNA. The research includes two complementary studies, one examining the biological function<\/a> of the system and the other revealing the molecular mechanism<\/a> that enables it.<\/p>\n

The team\u2019s research on a variant of the CRISPR\u2014Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats\u2014system broadens understanding of CRISPR\u2019s natural diversity and provides a foundation for new gene-regulation technologies. Because this CRISPR variant<\/a> activates genes without cutting DNA, it could be adapted for precise gene control applications, including research tools and potential therapeutic strategies that turn on genes without permanently altering the genome.<\/p>\n

One study shows that this CRISPR system, using a strand of RNA as a guide, finds specific sections of DNA, known as genes, and attracts the cell\u2019s own gene expression machinery to the location to activate the gene. The second study explains how the molecular complex<\/a> performs this task, revealing how its structure allows it to recruit RNA polymerase\u2014the enzyme responsible for transcribing DNA into RNA\u2014to initiate gene expression.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In back-to-back studies published in Nature, researchers from Purdue University and Columbia University report a naturally evolved gene-editing system that can activate genes, offering an advantage over existing CRISPR gene-editing systems that merely find and cut DNA. The research includes two complementary studies, one examining the biological function of the system and the other revealing [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,412],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-234083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-genetics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234083","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\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234083\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}