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Volume 38 Issue 7, July 2020

Volume 38 Issue 7

Focus on CRISPR tools and therapies

CRISPR-based genome editing has become a mainstay of experimental biology and is now maturing into a tool for therapeutic applications. Constant progress is being made in designing ever more sophisticated protein machines to catalyze desired changes with high efficiency and specificity, and in the methods to deliver the macromolecules involved to the tissues and cells. Many of the more recent advances have not entered clinical development yet, but will ultimately help therapeutic genome editing fulfill its full potential. Illustration of the structure of the CRISPR–Cas9 gene-editing complex, showing the guide RNA template (red), the Cas9 protein (blue) and the double strand of DNA (gray).

See Focus on CRISPR tools and therapies

Image: © Equinox Graphics Ltd. Cover Design: Erin Dewalt.

In This Issue

Editorial

  • Editorial |

    A slew of national COVID-19 exposure apps have failed because of poor public engagement and acceptance. Apps from the workplace may offer a partial solution if privacy can be guaranteed.

News

Bioentrepreneur

    Building a Business

  • Building a Business |

    Ask any pharma executive whether their company is interested in academic collaborations and the answer is a resounding “yes.” So why do so few academic institutions have success stories to share?

    • Juan Carlos López

Correspondence

Features

  • Feature |

    Investment and funding has continued to flow into biotech, unlike most business sectors. But with healthcare and hospital budgets increasingly under pressure, do belt-tightening and consolidation lie ahead? Melanie Senior investigates, with additional reporting by Riku Lähteenmäki.

    • Melanie Senior

    • Patents

  • Patents |

    Obtaining patent protection for microbiome therapeutics has been affected profoundly by the US Supreme Court decisions in Myriad and Mayo, which redefined the scope of which natural phenomena, including microbiome therapeutics, are patent eligible.

    • Mark J. FitzGerald
    •  & Erik J. Spek

News & Views

Research

Amendments & Corrections

Careers & Recruitment

    People

  • People |

    Recent moves of note in and around the biotech and pharma industries.

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