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posted by martyb on Friday March 15 2019, @11:23AM   Printer-friendly
from the DNA-cut-and-paste dept.

Mammoth Biosciences adds the final piece of the CRISPR diagnostics puzzle to its toolkit

With the announcement today that Mammoth Biosciences has received the exclusive license from the University of California, Berkeley to the new CRISPR protein Cas14, the company now has the last piece of its diagnostics toolkit in place.

Cas14 is a newly discovered protein from the lab of Jennifer Doudna, a pioneer in gene-editing research and a member of the first research team to identify and unlock the power of CRISPR technology. Doudna and Mammoth Biosciences co-founder Lucas Harrington were part of the team of researchers to identify the new Cas14 protein, which can identify single-stranded DNA. The journal Science published their findings [DOI: 10.1126/science.aav4294] [DX] in October 2018.

"With the addition of this protein that is DNA binding and target single strands, it really means we can target any nucleic acid," says Mammoth chief executive Trevor Martin. "It's an extension of the toolbox." The licensing deal moves Mammoth one step closer toward its goal of low-cost, in-home molecular diagnostics for any illness. "The idea is we want to make this test so affordable that you can imagine going down to your CVS or Walgreens so you can bring this access to molecular level information [to questions like] if my kid has strep or flu before dropping them off to school."

See also: CRISPR-Cas14: a family of small DNA-targeting enzymes enabling high-fidelity SNP genotyping

Related (all involving Dr. Jennifer Doudna): The Rapid Rise of CRISPR
Compact CRISPR Systems Found in Some of World's Smallest Microbes
Nonviral CRISPR-Gold Editing Technique Fixes Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Mutation in Mice
CRISPR Used to Cure Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy in Dogs... by Further Damaging DNA
CasX Protein Works for Gene Editing in Bacterial and Human Cells


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 15 2019, @12:38PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 15 2019, @12:38PM (#814728)

    It would be possible to adjust funding sources if some law ever threatened their ability to patent tax-payer funded discoveries.

    Getting the government out of research (separation of science and state) would be the best thing that could possibly happen for science at this point. I wonder if this is a plausible angle for making that happen.

  • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday March 15 2019, @05:06PM (1 child)

    by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Friday March 15 2019, @05:06PM (#814882) Journal

    I wish. Unfortunately, before the governments got involved in research, it was largely corporate, and right now the corporations already have too much power. So getting the governments out would make things worse. What is needed, instead, is a requirement that patents are not transferable. And that government entities holding patents much make them freely available to any citizen (without the formality of a specific request).

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    • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday March 15 2019, @05:08PM

      by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Friday March 15 2019, @05:08PM (#814884) Journal

      P.S.: Not transferable includes also not transferable by purchase of a currently owning entity.

      --
      Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.