Under certain circumstances, the targeted correction of faulty sections in the genome can trigger new genetic defects. This was reported by a team from the University of Zurich (UZH) in the case of the rare hereditary disease chronic granulomatosis. + Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox This affects around one in 120,000 people, the University of Zurich announced on Wednesday. The disease impairs the immune system and makes those affected susceptible to serious and life-threatening illnesses. Two letters are missing in the DNA sequence of a gene, which means that an enzyme complex that plays an important role in the defense against bacteria is not produced. + Is Switzerland ready for gene-edited crops? In an experiment on a cell culture of immune cells with the same defects as humans, the researchers succeeded in inserting the missing letters at the correct position in the gene using the CRISPR system. However, entire sections of the chromosome in which the ...
