Director Mattaj comments on the Nobel Prize for Chemistry 2020
07 October 2020
Director Mattaj comments on the Nobel Prize for Chemistry 2020
Director Iain Mattaj commented the winners of the 2020 Nobel Prize for Chemistry: “The Nobel prize awarded to Charpentier and Doudna is very well deserved. CRISPR is a typical example of a discovery which initially seemed interesting to a limited, niche group of scientists studying bacterial evolution. It has since become a fundamental tool for biology and subsequently an experimental tool for therapies linked to human health.
Genetic engineering, first achieved in 1972, is the ability to manipulate the structure and composition of DNA molecules by “cutting and pasting”. It allows us to learn what genes do, how they work and why they go wrong.
CRISPR technology has the potential to make the “dream” of genetic engineering come true: to make specific, targeted changes in the genome of any organism.
Since the breakthrough of Charpentier and Doudna, thousands of experiments have been published showing that CRISPR systems work to enable “cut and paste” experiments in the genomes of a large variety of organisms, including human cells and organoids in culture. Off-target side effects are limited and can be measured and controlled. This progress is already enabling clinical trials of the use of CRISPR in certain types of cancer treatment. Once its safety is established, the method will be applicable to many genetic disease states, and also potentially to treat parasites that infect or damage humans, like viruses.
Meanwhile, researchers are applying the method to a wide variety of questions. At Human Technopole for example, we are using it to help understand neurodevelopmental disorders, to identify promising drug targets in different cancers and to understand aspects of the evolution of the brain.”
The Glastonbury Group is among the recipients of the Data Insights Cycle 3 awards. The aim of the grant is to develop a machine learning model that identifies disease-relevant cell subpopulations whilst predicting a phenotype/disease of interest from large-scale single-cell RNA-seq data.
In collaboration with an international team of scientists, HT researchers identified a missense mutation in a gene involved in brain-intrinsic immunity as the genetic cause of SARS-CoV-2 brainstem encephalitis.
A study by Human Technopole, the Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust in London has shown that in prostate cancer the presence in the same tumour of cells with large differences in shape and genetic composition indicates an increased risk of relapse, including after a decade. The study may help doctors better tailor treatment for this disease, adopting more aggressive therapies in cases where these parameters indicate a higher risk of disease recurrence.
Human Technopole is opening its National Facilities, providing advanced equipment and technologies accessible through calls for proposals open to the Italian scientific community. Projects will be selected by a commission of international experts. Scientists will have access to five new dedicated facilities, which act as catalysts for open innovation in the life sciences sector, crucial for research and the health of Italians.
An international team of scientists led by HT researchers Magda Bienko and Nicola Crosetto developed an open-source software for deconvolution of widefield fluorescence microscopy image stacks and large tissue scans. This new tool increases the information obtained with fluorescence microscopy-based spatial omic methods.
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