Zinc-finger nucleases (ZFN)
Nucleasas de dedos de zinc (ZFN)
- Date
- 1996 · confidence high
- Place
- Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
- Credited to
- Srinivasan Chandrasegaran, Yang-Gyun Kim and Jooyeun Cha
- Field
- Life & health
What it is
Chandrasegaran fused the cleavage domain of the restriction enzyme FokI to zinc-finger proteins that recognise DNA sequences, and obtained the first programmable nucleases. They cut the genome at a chosen site and trigger its repair, the basis of targeted editing.
The Kim, Cha and Chandrasegaran work was published in PNAS in 1996; Bibikova and Carroll (Utah, 2002) used them to modify genes in flies, and Sangamo Biosciences took them to the clinic.
What it led to
- gene editing in Drosophila (2002) and human cells (Sangamo)
- first clinical trials of gene editing (CCR5 in HIV, 2009)
- TALEN and CRISPR-Cas9 as nucleases easier to programme