WIKIMEDIA, CDCInvestigators at Emory University in Atlanta have used a version of a Cas9 enzyme to target hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA in human cells, blocking replication of the pathogen. Their results were published in PNAS this week (April 27).
“There are lots of these Cas systems that exist in nature, and we don’t understand them very well,” said Charles Gersbach, a biomedical engineer at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, who was not involved in the work.
WIKIMEDIA, CHRISTOPH BOCKThree papers published in Cell this week (April 30) identify roles for N6-methyladenosine (6mA) in algae, worms, and flies. Researchers from the University of Chicago, Harvard, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, among other institutions, examined this form of methylation in three model systems.
While 6mA may not be as widespread as methylated cytosine is known to be in mammals, “it’s very clear it plays important roles in specific times of development and in specific biological processes,” said Chicago’s Chuan He, a coauthor on all three studies.
“The secret of these three Cell papers is that now there are technologies that can detect very low levels ...
