Cell Signaling :CRISPR gene cuts may offer new way to chart human genome

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Author Name: Keith Howell

Category Name: Medical science

Description:

The researchers say that pairing CRISPR with tools that sequence the DNA components of human cancer tissue is a technique that could, one day, enable fast, relatively cheap sequencing of patients' tumors, streamlining the selection and use of treatments that target highly specific and personal genetic alterations.For tumor sequencing in cancer patients, you don't necessarily need to sequence the whole cancer genome, says researcher. "Deep sequencing of particular areas of genetic interest can be very informative."

In conventional genome sequencing, scientists have to make many copies of the DNA at issue, randomly break the DNA into segments, and feed the broken segments through a computerized machine that reads the string of chemical compounds called nucleic acids, made up of the four "bases" that form DNA, and are lettered A, C, G and T. Then, scientists look for overlapping regions of the broken segments and fit them together like tiles on a roof to form long regions of DNA that make up a gene.

In their experiments, researchers were able to skip the DNA-copying part of conventional sequencing by using CRISPR to make targeted cuts in DNA isolated from a sliver of tissue taken from a patient's breast cancer tumor.Then, the scientists glued so-called "sequencing adaptors" to the CRISPR-snipped ends of the DNA sections. The adaptors serve as a kind of handle that guide DNA to tiny holes or "nanopores" which read the sequence.

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Media Contact:

Kieth Howell
Journal Manager
Journal of Cell signaling
Email: cellsignaling@peerjournal.org