Breakthrough gene-editing tool can find and replace DNA better than CRISPR

"Prime editing" is more precise and more efficient than CRISPR and could herald a new era of genetic manipulation.

The ability to edit the genes of human beings by changing the code of life -- DNA -- has dramatically improved over the last decade. Current tools, like CRISPR-Cas9and base editors, are extremely powerful but have traditionally suffered from a lack of precision, high error rate and limited scope, hampering their ability to treat human genetic disease. A breakthrough gene-editing tool, developed by a team of researchers at Harvard University and unveiled Monday, has the ability to make extremely precise DNA edits, ushering in a new era of genetic manipulation.

"In many respects this first report is the beginning rather than the end of a longstanding aspiration ... to be able to make any DNA change in any position of a living cell or organism including, potentially, human patients with genetic diseases," says David Liu, a chemist at Harvard's Broad Institute and co-author of the new study.

https://www.cnet.com/google-amp/news/breakthrough-gene-editing-tool-can-find-and-replace-dna-better-than-crispr/