We’ve seen a number of recent improvements to the CRISPR gene editing method, from enhanced precision to novel techniques to block the process. But despite all these innovations, the technique is generally only able to modify one single gene at a time.
An incredible new breakthrough from scientists at ETH Zurich has, for the first time, demonstrated a new CRISPR method that can modify dozens of genes simultaneously, allowing for more large-scale cell reprogramming.
In a recently published paper in the journal Nature Methods, a team of ETH scientists demonstrated their new gene editing process can modify 25 different target sites simultaneously. The scientists say this new technique is not necessarily limited to 25 targets, but theoretically could be increased to hundreds of simultaneous gene modifications.
“Thanks to this new tool, we and other scientists can now achieve what we could only dream of doing in the past,” says Randall Platt, from ETH Zurich in Basel. “Our method enables us, for the first time, to systematically modify entire gene networks in a single step.”
