ABOUT THIS PROJECT:
I-Gene (In-vivo Gene Editing by NanotransducErs) proposes a new concept for genome surgery by erasing harmful mutations based on the CRISPR/Cas9 method. The method is based on laser-activation of an otherwise deactivated Cas9 enzyme to trigger a thermos-switchable double strand DNA cleavage. The proposed technology implements a concept of multi-input AND gates, where the output (gene editing) is true only if multiple inputs are true, thereby reducing off-target DNA cleavage to increase its safety level. Indeed, the dream of unique recognition of the desired genomic target from any potential off-targets in the 3 billion base pairs of human genome would be possible.
THE ROLE OF LIONIX INTERNATIONAL:
LioniX International will produce a Lab-on-Chip environment to test the effectiveness of the gene editing. Using our TriPleX® technology to deliver the laser activation light to the target cells in our chip, a microfluidics system will be set up to allow easy experimentation to bring this technique to a higher level. Using our Life Marker Chip for the ExoMars mission as a basis, the Lab-on-Chip will be extended with a matrix approach to perform n x n parallel experiments on a single chip.
Find more information about this project and its progress on the i-gene website.
