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Tech News
Researchers using engineered HCT116 cell lines with degradable cohesin components (RAD21, WAPL, CTCF) and SMARCAL1 showed that cohesin actively reorganizes chromatin contacts around replication forks. This reshaping helps slow down forks and promotes their reversal when replication stress occurs, linking genome organization machinery directly to DNA replication control.
The European Union has overturned its previous strict restrictions on cultivating gene-edited crops, no longer classifying them under the same rules as traditional GMOs. The change allows CRISPR-edited plants, which involve only small DNA changes rather than foreign-species insertions, to be grown more freely, potentially alongside conventional crops. A plant geneticist argues this shift could reshape European agriculture, though he warns the new rules still contain flaws that may limit their benefits.
A woman who received a gene-edited pig kidney transplant at Massachusetts General Hospital last November has now gone 285 days without needing dialysis, breaking the previous 271-day record set by Tim Andrews. The kidney was engineered by eGenesis using Crispr gene editing to remove pig genes that trigger immune rejection and add human genes, and she is the fifth patient to receive one of the company's kidneys.
A gene-editing therapy designed to permanently lower cholesterol has shown sustained reductions in patients for at least 12 months after a single treatment. The therapy uses CRISPR technology to edit genes tied to cholesterol regulation, aiming for a one-time fix rather than daily medication.
Scientists at Southern Illinois University Carbondale used CRISPR-edited yeast strains to break down PET plastic and plant waste into edible proteins, fats, and flavor compounds, which were then 3D printed into small cookie-shaped snacks called 'ÂBites.' The plastic is first broken down using heat, water, and oxygen before the yeast converts it into a food-like slurry, though the team has not yet tasted the cookies pending university approval.