The Murthy Lab, along with collaborators in Hye Young Lee’s lab at the University of Texas, San Antonio, has published the paper “Nanoparticle delivery of CRISPR into the brain rescues a mouse model of fragile X syndrome from exaggerated repetitive behaviours” in Nature Biomedical Engineering. In the paper, we demonstrate that our previously developed CRISPR-Gold gene editing delivery system may be effectively delivered into brain cells of mice via intracranial injection, and subsequently rescue mice from fragile X syndrome, a genetic autism spectrum disorder.

This paper has received significant news coverage. A selection of news articles about this paper can be found below:

The Telegraph: Autism traits could be ‘edited’ out genetic trial suggests

Science Daily: CRISPR editing reduces repetitive behavior in mice with a form of autism

Newsweek: THE END OF AUTISM? CRISPR CAN EDIT OUT AUTISM TRAITS, SCIENTISTS SAY

Popular Science: CRISPR could use gold nanoparticles to edit your brain

The Daily Californian: Study finds CRISPR-Cas9 technology can lessen autism symptoms in mice

SFGate: Study: CRISPR gene editing tech reduced autism symptoms in mice

Murthy lab research on CRISPR-Gold published in Nature Biomedical Engineering.  The paper was titled “Nanoparticle delivery of Cas9 ribonucleoprotein and donor DNA in vivo induces homologous directed DNA repair”.  In this paper we demonstrate that it is possible to correct DNA mutations in vivo by delivering the Cas9 protein, guide RNA and donor DNA with gold nanoparticles.

This paper was highlighted by multiple news media, some of media coverage for this paper are shown below

Francis Collins the Director of the NIH blogs about CRISPR-Gold!

https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2017/10/10/gene-editing-gold-nanoparticle-delivery-shows-promise/

CRISPR-Gold is profiled on the U.C. Berkeley website

http://news.berkeley.edu/2017/10/03/crispr-gold-fixes-duchenne-muscular-dystrophy-mutation-in-mice/

Fierce Biotech writes an article about CRISPR-Gold

http://www.fiercebiotech.com/research/gold-nanoparticles-effectively-deliver-crispr-to-mice

The Scientist writes an article about CRISPR-Gold

http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/50546/title/Nonviral-CRISPR-Delivery-a-Success/

Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News writes about CRISPR-Gold

https://www.genengnews.com/gen-news-highlights/crispr-nanoparticles-repair-duchenne-muscular-dystrophy-gene/81255009

Needle-free, painless vaccinations may become a reality thanks to MucoJet

Device developed for painless vaccine delivery

Murthy Lab sends a warm welcome to new Postdoctoral fellow Yumiao Zhang.

Congratulations to Murthy Lab’s postdoctoral fellow, Xiaojian Wang, for his new faculty position at Nanjing Tech University in China! We wish you all the best in your future career!

Congratulations to Murthy Lab’s postdoctoral fellow, Giri K. Vegesna, for his new position at Profusa Inc, a biotech company working on the development of a new generation of biointegrated sensors! We wish you all the best in your future career!

Murthy Lab sends a warm welcome to new Postdoc Subhamoy Das.

Congratulations to Murthy Lab’s postdoctoral fellow, Mike Webb, for his new faculty position at Montana State University! We wish you all the best in your future endeavors!

Hydrocyanines are now commercially available from Licor Biosciences, under the name ROSstar.

Murthy Lab sends a warm welcome to new Postdoc Mike Webb, a native Canadian who can tell you all “aboot” it.

Two new postdocs join us, Mike Zibinsky and Mohammad Rafi.

Welcome two new UCB/UCSF Bioengineering graduate students, Kunwoo Lee and Simon Lee! Also, new undergraduates for the summer: Shefali (IIT), Richard (BioE/MSE), Austin (MCB) and Roxy (BioE).

Murthy Lab welcomes some new members to our lab: a post-doc, Jeong Chan Park and MD/PhD student, Elliot Woods!