New single-step genome editing techniques that enable the insertion, inversion or deletion of long DNA sequences at specified genome positions have been demonstrated in bacteria. The advance opens the door to the development of programmable methods for rearranging DNA, using recombinase enzymes guided by RNA. The two different approaches to using insertion sequences (IS) – some of the simplest and most compact mobile genetic elements – are described in two papers published in Nature and Nature Communications.
Variants in several subunits of the Mediator protein complex are responsible for MEDopathies, which present variable clinical manifestations and modes of inheritance. Researchers from Université de Paris Cité have investigated the role of MED16, a subunit of the evolutionary-conserved Mediator complex, in MEDopathies.
At the ESHG meeting in Berlin, a novel causative gene for Perrault syndrome was presented by a researcher from the University of Manchester. Perrault syndrome is a rare autosomal recessive disease characterized by sensorineural hearing loss and primary ovarian insufficiency.
Relay Therapeutics Inc. has disclosed three new programs from its existing preclinical pipeline, including two novel programs from its genetic disease portfolio and a potentially first-in-class NRAS-selective inhibitor.
Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva is a rare and life-threatening genetic disease caused by gain-of-function mutations in the ALK2 gene, which encodes activin receptor-like kinase 2. Blueprint Medicines Corp. has elucidated the discovery of their ALK2 inhibitor BLU-782, which is now in phase II studies at Ipsen for the treatment of FOP.
Researchers from Landeskrankenhaus Salzburg (SALK) - Universitätsklinikum der PMU have identified a novel loss-of-function variant in the NDUFA7 gene in a patient with Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON).
Scientists from the PsychENCODE Consortium have analyzed the brain transcriptome in a coordinated series of studies to map all the cell types, genes, epigenetic factors, and molecular pathways involved in different psychiatric disorders. After a first set of projects based on bulk analysis, the second phase of this project included 14 simultaneous publications that revealed the cellular atlas of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depressive disorder (MDD), among others.
CTNNB1 syndrome is a rare neurodevelopmental disorder that is caused by mutations in the gene encoding β-catenin, CTNNB1, which plays a critical role in neuronal development, synapse formation and brain maturation.
α1-Antitrypsin deficiency is a hereditary disorder that affects the liver in children and adults, as well as the lungs in adults. The disease is mostly caused by the Z allele mutation in the SERPINA1 gene, where a glutamic acid amino acid is substituted by lysine (E342K) leading to protein misfolding and aggregation.
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