You may have probably heard of CRISPR/Cas9 (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats/Caspase 9) which is a genetic editing tool used by scientists to cut a specific region in a genome and when the cell repairs the damage, specific sequences are removed or introduced.
Instead of utilising the increasingly popular gene editing tool of CRISPR/Cas9, Professor Jason Peters and his collaborators employed Mobile-CRISPR interference, for their research. CRISPR interference, also known as CRISPRi, allows scientists to target particular genes in the genome so as to cause specific gene repression in cells. To make the CRISPRi mobile, the scientists capitalised on a type of ‘bacteria sex’ also known as conjugation. As a result, Peters and team were able to transfer CRISPRi from common laboratory models such as E.coli to other disease-causing bacteria strains.
The researchers employed Mobile-CRISPRi to screen for potential antibiotic targets in pathogenic bacteria so as to have a better understanding of how certain antibiotics work and perhaps pave the way for better design of antibiotics as well as opens up avenues for scientists to overcome antibiotic resistance. Peters and team published their research findings in the journal Nature Microbiology.
You may also read more about their work at: https://www.technologynetworks.com/immunology/news/improving-antibiotic-therapy-with-crispri-313847
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