Keywords: viruses

Viruses that ‘infect’ viruses: Cas12f1 and Cas9 gene drive in HSV1

Hongsheng Dai, Qiaorui Yao, Zhuangjie Lin, Keyuan Lai, Xianyin Zeng, Guangxiong Lei, Tongwen Zhang,  bioRxiv,  2023.
Cas9-based synthetic gene drives constitute some minimal elements capable of editing DNA with sequence specificity. However, they face high resistance rate and mitigation strategies developed so far are difficult to implement. Here, we engineered herpes simplex virus type 1 ...
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Emerging Gene Drive Applications

David O'Brochta,  ,  2023.
Gene drive systems are being engineered in the laboratory and in some cases shown to be effective at rapidly altering target-gene frequencies in experimental populations. Much of this foundational work has been conducted in insects in the laboratory. This webinar series will ...
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Could editing the genomes of bats prevent future coronavirus pandemics? Two scientists think it’s worth a try

E. C. Hayden,  STAT,  2021.
Amid the devastating Covid-19 pandemic, two researchers are proposing a drastic way to stop future pandemics: using a technology called a gene drive to rewrite the DNA of bats to prevent them from becoming infected with coronaviruses. The scientists aim to block spillover ...
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Preventing COVID-59

Y. Erlich and D. Douek,  github,  2021.
SARS-CoV-2 is the third betacoronavirus to enter the human population in the past 20 years, revealing a concerning pattern. Clearly, preventing a future pandemic from such viruses is a critical priority. Previous studies have shown that shRNAs can be powerful suppressors of RNA ...
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Stable Introduction of Plant-Virus-Inhibiting Wolbachia into Planthoppers for Rice Protection

J. T. Gong, Y. Li, T. P. Li, Y. Liang, L. Hu, D. Zhang, C. Y. Zhou, C. Yang, X. Zhang, S. S. Zha, X. Z. Duan, L. A. Baton, X. Y. Hong, A. A. Hoffmann and Z. Xi,  Current Biology,  30:4837-4845.e5. 2020.
Progress has been made in developing the maternally inherited endosymbiotic bacterium Wolbachia as a tool for protecting humans from mosquito-borne diseases. In contrast, Wolbachia-based approaches have not yet been developed for the protection of plants from insect pests and ...
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