The CRISPR genome-editing system is best-known for its potential to correct disease-causing mutations and add new genes into living cells.
The CRISPR genome-editing system is best-known for its potential to correct disease-causing mutations and add new genes into living cells. Now, a team from MIT and Harvard University has deployed CRISPR for a completely different purpose: creating novel materials, such as gels, that can change their properties when they encounter specific DNA sequences.
The researchers showed they could use CRISPR to control electronic circuits and microfluidic devices, and to release drugs, proteins, or living cells from gels. Such materials could be used to create diagnostic devices for diseases such as Ebola, or to deliver treatments for diseases such as irritable bowel disease.
“This study serves as a nice starting point for showing how CRISPR can be utilized in materials science for a really wide range of applications,” says James Collins, the Termeer Professor of Medical Engineering and Science in MIT’s Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES) and Department of Biological Engineering, and the senior author of the study.
Read more at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Image: MIT engineers created a DNA-acrylamide gel that can be degraded by DNA-editing enzymes. At right, the gel is broken down after two hours of exposure to a DNA "trigger sequence." At left, the gel is exposed to DNA that doesn't contain the trigger sequence, so it remains intact. Image courtesy of the researchers
