In a new study funded by a $3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), University of Missouri researcher Kiho Lee, an associate professor in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, will use gene editing to investigate the building blocks of disease. His ultimate goal — to discover clinically significant explanations for human diseases like Alzheimer’s, cancer and infertility, while working on solutions to global food insecurity.
Common diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, are widespread in humans, plaguing an estimated 11% or 6.7 million Americans over age 65, according to The Alzheimer’s Association. Some Alzheimer’s diseases, specifically early onset cases, are highly linked to a person’s genetic background, of which gene editing could be a future solution. This dual-purpose grant will encourage scientific innovation not only in the biomedical realm, which would focus on human disease, but also in agriculture, where Lee is hopeful this research will improve pig welfare as well as increase food production for farmers.
Working toward this outcome, Lee and his team will evaluate the efficacy and safety of genome editing technology — known as the CRISPR/Cas system — to improve the gene-testing process and design approaches that help researchers make the most of a targeted genome editing event. The study objective involves investigating three specific aims:
Develop a method for the global detection of unintended outcomes from gene editing in genetically engineered pigs.
Design a method for ensuring the integrity of the genome when gene editing.
Establish a strategy for rapidly phenotyping genetically engineered pigs in utero and modifying the genome of wild-type adult pigs to ensure favorable traits for agriculture and biomedicine.
“Ultimately, the goal is to generate founder pigs that have fewer unintended modifications, which we call ‘off-targeting events,’” Lee said. “This way, the founder animals — those with modified genomes — would present the phenotype or trait that we intend to generate, making the whole process more effective.”
This study will help scientists refine the mechanism of gene editing to streamline what traits the animals will exhibit. Because breeding genetically engineered pigs often takes a significant time commitment, this is an important component to this study.
Source: eurekalert.org
Photo Credit: gettyimages-dra-schwartz
Categories: Missouri, Business, Education, Livestock, Hogs