* but were afraid to ask
Hello friends,
Spring is kicking into gear here in San Diego, California. My peach and avocado tree are both flowering, so hopefully our chilly and wet winter will translate into a good fruit set later in the year. I’ll keep you posted.
Gene editing
The first gene editing drug, Casgevy, is now approved and commercially available. Wow! This approval occurred only 12 years after the famous 2012 paper by Jinek, Doudna and Charpentier. These scientists demonstrated how CRISPR could be used as a programmable tool to create therapies for genetic disorders. History has proven them correct.
Last Friday, I delivered a 45 minute seminar that provides an overview of gene editing biology. I delve into the history of this new drug category, and then review the CRISPR/Cas9 platform and end by discussing some promising new editing platforms, base and prime editing. I start the lecture very broadly, but by the end of the course I think you will agree that I have covered a lot of ground, in terms of biological detail.
I encourage you all to login below and watch for free. Please share with any young, budding biotech students that may appreciate this sort of thing.
These courses are provided by Caring Cross. Caring Cross is a non-profit that recently made headlines by working out a deal with Brazilian health authorities to deliver low cost advanced medicine (CAR-T) to Brazilian citizens. Very exciting…Read more about this development in Brazil here.
To watch my gene editing seminar, you need to sign up to become a member of Caring Cross (also free).
Then, once you are signed up with Caring Cross, go to the Members area and find the Archives section. There you will be able to watch all of my seminars, including my recent talk on gene editing.
I’ll be delivering a new seminar every month on different topics related to gene editing. If you have suggestions for future topics, please let me know. You can comment below or respond to this email.
All the best,
Kevin Curran