CRISPR/Cas9

The Max Delbrück Center is a partner of the doctoral network GetRadi, which was started in September. Young scientists who want to learn how to develop gene therapies for rare diseases can apply to be a part of the EU-funded project until October 20.

Klaus Rajewsky’s life reads like a chronicle of immunogenetics. He grasped the opportunities offered by radical changes in molecular biology. He established standard methods for researching gene functions and diseases like cancer. And he continues to contribute to our understanding of antibody-producing B cells.

MyoPax, a new spin-off of the Max Delbrück Center and Charité, receives a 1.3 million euros loan to jump-start its entrepreneurial activities. The start-up develops regenerative therapies for previously incurable muscle diseases using its innovative muscle stem cell technology.

A CRISPR-based rapid test called CrisprZyme could help general practitioners to diagnose heart attacks and distinguish between different types of prostate cancer. They do not even need a lab, as an international team of scientists – including Michael Kaminski – reports in "Nature Nanotechnology".

The molecular tool CRISPR-Cas9 can be used to treat inherited blood disorders, but this may cause unintended genetic alterations. A team led by MDC researchers Klaus Rajewsky and Van Trung Chu has now presented an approach in “Science Advances” that minimizes such adverse consequences.

Medical interventions in the human body can prolong our lives. But where do we draw the line? Questions like these were the subject of the Salon Sophie Charlotte "Still, Life is Life" of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. The MDC was part of it.

There’s likely to be a fundamental difference between how a medical practicioner and an artist view genetic editing with CRISPR. But both perspectives reveal possible ways to shape life in nature. Science meets art: the Max Delbrück Center at the Salon Sophie Charlotte 2022 in Berlin.

Mutations that lead to muscle atrophy can be repaired with the gene editor CRISPR-Cas9. A team led by ECRC researcher Helena Escobar has now introduced the tool into human muscle stem cells for the first time using mRNA, thus discovering a method suitable for therapeutic applications.

Simone Spuler is looking to use stem cells and CRISPR to prevent the muscle tissue of patients with genetic muscle disorders from further deteriorating – or even to repair it. This could lead to the first therapeutic approaches for diseases that have up to now been considered incurable.

MDC researchers can now induce diverse genetic mutations and track their effects on a large scale in microscopic worms. The team describe their in vivo parallel genetics approach and new analysis software called crispr-DART in the journal "Cell Reports".