CASE STUDY — life science
CRISPR
beyond Cas9.
Overview
Paired with the Cas9 protein, CRISPR technology fundamentally altered our scientific world with an unprecedented ability to precisely control gene edits. As applications for the technology grow, the Cas IP landscape has grown more complex, and new diverse nucleases are needed more than ever.
Challenge
We need to identify additional Cas proteins that can avoid hurdles both biological (such as preexisting antibodies in patients) and technical (including the challenging field of IP and patents).
Approach
Contigs in context
Because our bit-GEM database is built on bit-MAP technology that includes longer contigs, our database search was able to identify areas of adjacent sequences of interest, including CRISPR sequences and tracrRNA sequences. We then employed bit-QED informatics and in vivo analysis to optimize tracrRNA and Cas pairs.
Result
- Thousands of new nuclease sequences identified
- Long contig-generating technology provides information on additional sequence elements (e.g. CRISPR regions) for each individual Cas enzyme
- Many sequences are derived from environments that humans are rarely exposed to, decreasing the likelihood that patients have pre-existing antibodies
Additional case studies
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Drug Discovery Case Study
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