What is CRISPR?
CRISPR is the abbreviation for Clustered Regulatory Interspersed Short Palindromic Repeats,and was discovered as an ancient prokaryotic immune system, protecting bacteria against viral infections. The CRISPR system allow scientist to alter the genome of any organism.
How does it work?
CRISPR allows the recognition of specific DNA and RNA sequences by Cas, a protein that cleaves DNA. Subsequent repair of the broken DNA allows precise modification of the target site.
CRISPR can be envisioned as a cut-and-paste toolbox that enables scientist to precisely and selectively edit DNA and RNA sequences.
Opportunities
Genome engineering through CRISPR is offering many new and exciting possibilities for biomedical research as well as opening up potential clinical applications in the future. To fully take advantage of CRISPR and its applications the Cancer Center Amsterdam (CCA) has initiated the CRISPR Platform and assigned a CRISPR Consultant.
Challenges
To advance the implementation of this state-of-the-art technology and quickly overcome its challenges, the CRISPR Platform is bringing Amsterdam UMC researchers interested in CRISPR together. By organizing regular user meetings and by hosting an online community platform, researchers can easily interact to solve problems and share information on all issues related to CRISPR.
Latest news
New Tools: CRISPR C>G, G>C base editor
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