Lifeboat Foundation

A team of researchers affiliated with the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, MIT and the National Institutes of Health has found that CRISPR-associated transposons can be used to insert custom genes into DNA without cutting it. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes their new gene-editing technique and how well it worked when tested in a bacterial genome.

The CRISPR gene editing technique has made headlines in recent years due to its potential for treating hereditary diseases. Unfortunately, despite much research surrounding the technique, it is still not a viable option for use on human patients. This is because the technique is error-prone—when snipping strands of DNA, CRISPR sometimes cuts off-target DNA as well, leading to unintended and unpredictable consequences (and sometimes cancerous tumors). In this new effort, the researchers have found a way to use CRISPR in conjunction with another protein to edit a strand of DNA without cutting it—they are calling it CRISPR-associated transposase (CAST).

Prior research has shown that certain pieces of DNA called transposons are, for unknown reasons, able to reposition themselves in a genome spontaneously—for this reason, they have come to be known as jumping genes. Not long after they were discovered, researchers noted that they might be used for gene editing. This is what the researchers did in the new study. They associated a transposon called Tn7 with the Cas12 enzyme used with CRISPR to edit a section of a bacterial genome. In practice, CRISPR led the Tn7 transposon to the target location in the genome—at that point, the transposon inserted itself into the genome without cutting it.

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The growing interest in cannabis and cannabis-derived products has sparked uncertainty and concern over the industry’s lack of regulations. On Thursday, the FDA held a hearing that looked deeper into the science and safety concerns that surround marijuana and CBD.

Medical Marijuana Inc (MJNA) CEO Stuart Titus is optimistic about the effects that cannabis-derived products have on humans.

“We have a very large self-regulatory system in our human bodies called the internal or the endogenous cannabinoid system,” Titus told YFi AM (video above). “And basically since cannabis has been removed from our diets for the past 80-plus years, many of us are cannabinoid deficient, and thus we start taking a nice supplementary-size serving of CBD. Many people are moving to a much higher level of overall health and wellness.”

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French scientists find common mental health drugs combat rapid and sometimes deadly brain infection. Andrew Masterson reports.

May is Mental Health Awareness month. Here’s why it’s vital to men everywhere.

Dogs are great at detecting different diseases!

Though it’s impossible to know whether any given person will end up developing cardiovascular disease later in life, there are known factors and lifestyle decisions that increase the risk. Knowing whether you’re at a higher risk of developing a heart health issue makes it possible to take preventative steps, and here to help with that is a new study detailing seven ‘key’ prediction metrics.

The newest results from the Human Microbiome Project have revealed just how connected the microbes in our gut are to our overall health.

You have about as many bacteria and other microbes living in your body as your own cells—and yet, we still don’t understand much about how this microbiome relates to bodily function. Back in 2007, the National Institutes of Health kicked off the Human Microbiome Project, a $200 million effort to understand these microbes. Scientists have now published the results from the second phase of this project, designed to study how the microbiome interacts with the human body. These three studies, which examine preterm birth, inflammatory bowel disease, and pre-diabetes, demonstrate that microbiomes are unique to individuals and intimately tied to our health.