This week I had to write up a mock research proposal. I decided to write about zinc finger nucleases. I thought the topic was pretty interesting, so I've included a little blurb from my proposal: Through coupling zinc fingers with a DNA nuclease (zinc finger nuclease), a site-specific genomic sequence can be permanently disrupted by the insertion of a double-stranded break. Engineered zinc finger nucleases are beginning to make significant contributions to functional genomics, synthetic biology, and clinical medicine. Zinc finger nucleases have been shown to successfully manipulate genomes of higher organisms, such as zebra fish, sea urchin, and various types of mammalian cells. Recently, Perez et al. mutated the human gene CCR5, which serves as a co-receptor for entry of HIV-1 into CD4+ T Cells. The mutation successfully produced an HIV-resistant cell population. The ability to modify the genome of a living cell facilitates study of gene function and allows targeted therapeutic interventions in genomes. It is clear that zinc finger nucleases have the potential to play a significant role in biomedical applications; and a new way to investigate fundamental principles of protein-DNA recognition and gene-regulation.
Recently, David et al advised patients to wear condoms. This has decreased the transmission of HIV far more then any zinc finger nuclease ever will. And it's free in some cities. Oh the things that people will do to spend millions of research dollars.
ReplyDeleteThe point was not about curing HIV- it's about the idea of being able to manipulate the human genome in such a way that you can supress the expression of unwanted traits- like inherited diseases
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