The latest work from the lab now out in @cp-molcell.bsky.social! New mechanistic insights into TnpB DNA unwinding and hypercompact plant genome editors🌱 Congratulations to leads @zehanzhou.bsky.social, Iren Saffarian, @honglue.bsky.social, Trevor Weiss & team, and Jacobsen, Savage and Bryant labs

Zehan Zhou@zehanzhou.bsky.social · 7d ago

We are PUBLISHED!!! Our mechanistic work on how CRISPR-Cas ancestors unwind DNA and how this can be used to engineer hypercompact plant editors can now be found on Mol Cell- if you are interested in what defines a good genome editor, this read is for you 😎 🔗 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

We are PUBLISHED!!! Our mechanistic work on how CRISPR-Cas ancestors unwind DNA and how this can be used to engineer hypercompact plant editors can now be found on Mol Cell- if you are interested in what defines a good genome editor, this read is for you 😎 🔗 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Scientists have harnessed AI models to create synthetic CRISPR proteins that edit the genome more efficiently than those seen in nature go.nature.com/4f8AN3n

CRISPR gets a power boost from AI-designed ‘molecular scissors’

Researchers used artificial intelligence to design functional CRISPR enzymes not seen in nature.

go.nature.com

New pre-print 📣 “Undruggable” cancer mutations remain very hard to target with current modalities. What if we could instead sense mutant transcripts and convert that recognition into selective cell killing? Check out this work led by postdoc Jingkun Zeng: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

We present VIPR, a phage-encoded RNA-guided system that recognizes DNA with a noncontiguous code unlike CRISPR. Tiny, programmable, possibly ancestral to CRISPR immunity; VIPR is built around a striking RNA-DNA-DNA triplex.

Kenneth Loi@kenjmloi.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Excited to share our discovery of a new programmable RNA-guided DNA-targeting system hiding inside bacteriophages that predates CRISPR. We call it VIPR (Viral Interference Programmable Repeat), and it uses an entirely new logic to find its targets. Thread + link below.

Truly some of the most innovative papers I’ve read in the field- here’s a set of 2 papers from the lab that biochemically and structurally profile an ancestor of the type 1 CRISPR-Cas proteins!!! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

How do the ancestors of CRISPR-Cas unwind DNA and how can this lead to better genome editing? With our collaboration between @doudna-lab.bsky.social x @jacobsenucla.bsky.social x Zev Bryant's lab x @savagecatsonly.bsky.social we've uncovered the secrets behind TnpB's dynamics!

New preprint 👉Doudna x Bryant x Jacobsen x Savage collaboration! Work led by @zehanzhou.bsky.social, I. Saffarian-Deemyad, @honglue.bsky.social, T. Weiss We dissect how stepwise DNA unwinding gates TnpB genome editing, revealing how unwound DNA states enhance cleavage www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Stepwise DNA unwinding gates TnpB genome-editing activity

TnpB is a compact RNA-guided endonuclease and evolutionary ancestor of CRISPR-Cas12 that offers a promising platform for genome engineering. However, the genome-editing activity of TnpBs remains limit...

biorxiv.org

✨New preprint! 🧵1/4 Excited to share our work on AI-guided design of minimal RNA-guided nucleases. Amazing work by @petrskopintsev.bsky.social @isabelesain.bsky.social @evandeturk.bsky.social et al! Multi-lab collaboration @banfieldlab.bsky.social @jhdcate.bsky.social @jacobsenucla.bsky.social🧬 🔗👇

1/10 Genome maintenance by telomerase is a fundamental process in nearly all eukaryotes. But where does it come from? Today, we report the discovery of telomerase homologs in a family of antiviral RTs, revealing an unexpected evolutionary origin in bacteria. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Antiviral reverse transcriptases reveal the evolutionary origin of telomerase

Defense-associated reverse transcriptases (DRTs) employ diverse and distinctive mechanisms of cDNA synthesis to protect bacteria against viral infection. However, much of DRT family diversity remains ...

biorxiv.org

Excited to share our new preprint co-led by @jnoms.bsky.social! Here we reveal an exceptional diversity of viral 2H phosphodiesterases (PDEs) that enable immune evasion by selectively degrading oligonucleotide-based messengers. This 2H PDE fold has evolved striking substrate breath & specificity.

Divergent viral phosphodiesterases for immune signaling evasion

Cyclic dinucleotides (CDNs) and other short oligonucleotides play fundamental roles in immune system activation in organisms ranging from bacteria to humans. In response, viruses use phosphodiesterase...

biorxiv.org

1/10 New pre-print(s) from the Sternberg Lab in collaboration with Leifu Chang's Lab! We uncover the unprecedented molecular mechanism of CRISPR-Cas12f-like proteins, which drive RNA-guided transcription independently of canonical promoter motifs. Full story here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Our paper is finally out in Molecular Cell! 🚀 We uncover why PAM-relaxed Cas9 variants like SpRY are inefficient — they get kinetically trapped during target engagement. Mechanistic insights like this are key to engineering smarter, faster genome editors. Huge thanks to the team! #CRISPR #editing🔬🧬

Molecular Cell @cp-molcell.bsky.social · last yr.

Online Now: Rapid two-step target capture ensures efficient CRISPR-Cas9-guided genome editing Online now:

Glad to welcome Democratic Vice Chair @tedlieu.bsky.social to CA-12 today. We toured labs at @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social and discussed how the Trump administration's attacks on NIH funding endangers decades of leading research and scientific work.