Genetic Engineering Publications - GEG Tech top picks

Organoids can be used to study human diseases, but they are often difficult to use, especially when evaluating several candidate genes that underlie a particular condition. A team at the Institute for Molecular Biotechnology in Vienna has therefore found a way around this problem. Their approach combines brain organoids with two other technologies that are CRISPR-Cas9 to knock out specific genes and DNA barcodes to track individual cells and their progeny. This approach has been named CRISPR-LIneage tracing at Cellular Resolution in Heterogeneous Tissue and found 12 genes with a specific function in the tissue once the organoid began to take the form of a small brain. Among these 12 genes, the researchers showed that the IER3IP1 gene mutation results in abnormally small organoids because their neural progenitor cells differentiate into neurons before the organoids develop properly. The IER3IP1 peptide appears to block premature differentiation by promoting the secretion of extracellular matrix proteins that support tissue integrity and proliferation of neural progenitors.