WIKIMEDIA, NHGRIBy tweaking the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing machinery such that it mutates its own guide RNA loci, researchers have developed a method for cells to continuously generate their own unique barcodes. The technique, developed independently by two groups at MIT and Harvard, has been utilized in mammalian cells for molecular recording—as described this summer (August 18) in Science—and for lineage tracing, according to a paper published last week (December 5) in Nature Methods.
“It is a really cool technique . . . in the sense that you get one site that can generate a very diverse editing pattern and can start encoding more and more information,” said Aaron McKenna of the University of Washington who was not involved in either study.
Neuroscientist Edward Boyden of MIT who also did not participate in the studies agreed. “This is very exciting work, since it could help label different cells in an organism . . . so they are easy to distinguish.”
The use of the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing system to insert information about a cell into its own genome—be that information about the cell’s identity (a barcode), or the cell’s exposure to signaling molecules or other factors—is a growing area of ...
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