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Prime Time for Mouse Models

MIT News

In a study by senior authors Tyler Jacks and Francisco Sánchez-Rivera, researchers developed a method for easily engineering specific cancer-linked mutations into mouse models. With a CRISPR-based prime editing system installed in the mouse genome, researchers can induce a tumor in a specific tissue, expressing a specific mutation, by injecting an activating protein together with an RNA editing guide. In a Nature Biotechnology study, the researchers created models of several different mutations of the cancer-causing gene Kras, in different organs. They believe this technique could also be used for nearly any other type of cancer mutation that has been identified.

This research was supported in part by the Koch Institute Frontier Research Program.  

At the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, scientists and engineers work come together to solve some of the most difficult problems in cancer. We ask big questions in strategic areas, where the answers have big impacts on how we understand and treat cancer.