19.07.2018

Site-directed RNA editing as an alternative to genetic scissors

IFIB researchers develop an efficient method to edit cellular transcripts

The Stafforst lab demonstrated the efficient and precise editing of endogenous transcripts inside the cell. The method relies on an engineered protein, which is directed to the target transcript by a short guide RNA and catalyzes the conversion of certain bases. In collaboration with the group of Jin Billy Li at Stanford University, the IFIB researchers could show that the method makes only few mistakes and is many times more specific than competing methods, also ones based on Cas13. In contrast to genome editing, changes introduced in RNA can be considered reversible, which makes off-target mutations less severe and might be advantageous for future therapeutic applications. The results of the study are published in the July issue of Nature Methods.

Publication:

Vogel, P., Moschref, M., Li, Q., Merkle, T., Selvasaravanan, K. D., Li, J. B. & Stafforst,T. Efficient and precise editing of endogenous transcripts with SNAP-tagged ADARs. Nat. Methods 15, 535–538 (2018).

Link to publication

Contact information:

Professor Dr. Thorsten Stafforst

University of Tübingen

Interfaculty Institute of Biochemistry

Phone +49 7071 29-75376

thorsten.stafforstspam prevention@uni-tuebingen.de

Downloads