New CRISPR Inhibitors Found With Help From U.S. Department of Defense Funding
Two papers describing anti-CRISPR proteins were supported by a DARPA program to improve the safety of the gene-editing method and to counteract its nefarious use
September 10, 2018 | Source: C&EN | by Ryan Cross
As scientists march closer to using CRISPR gene editing to treat diseases, the U.S. Department of Defense is prepping for the possibility of a more nefarious use of CRISPR: its weaponization to harm humans, animals, or crops.
In July 2017, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced a $65 million research program to prepare for these scenarios. Called Safe Genes, the DARPA program is funding projects to develop countermeasures and prophylactic treatments against unwanted gene editing. It also supports researchers who are designing systems to better control intentional gene editing.
Last week, two papers published in Science offered the first glimpse of the kind of research that DARPA is supporting. Two groups, one led by Jennifer Doudna from the University of California, Berkeley (Science 2018, DOI: 10.1126/science.aau5138), and another led by Joseph Bondy-Denomy at the University of California, San Francisco (Science 2018, DOI: 10.1126/science.aau5174), discovered several new CRISPR inhibitors, including one for CRISPR/Cas12a, an increasingly popular alternative to the standard CRISPR/Cas9 gene editor.