A new tool for editing DNA, one base at a time
by Deborah Netburn, Los Angeles Times
Oct 25, 2017
4 minutes
Talk about precision gene editing.
Scientists from Harvard University have just unveiled a new gene editor that uses the revolutionary CRISPR-Cas9 technology to target and change a single letter in a string of DNA bases - no cutting necessary.
Considering that there are billions of letters in the human genome, converting one letter to another may not sound like much. But tens of thousands of human diseases can be traced to these tiny mistakes, scientists say.
If traditional gene editing is like taking a pair of molecular scissors to a DNA strand to alter a genome, then the new technique, known as base editing, is like using a pencil
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