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  • NEWS FEATURE

Step aside CRISPR, RNA editing is taking off

Making changes to the molecular messengers that create proteins might offer flexible therapies for cancer, pain or high cholesterol, in addition to genetic disorders.
By
  1. Sara Reardon

    1. Sara Reardon is a freelance journalist in Bozeman, Montana.

Illustration by Joanna Gębal

Thorsten Stafforst found his big break at the worst possible time. In 2012, his team at the University of Tübingen in Germany discovered that by linking enzymes to engineered strands of RNA, they could change the sequences of messenger RNA molecules in cells. In essence, they could rewrite the genome’s instructions en route to making proteins.

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Nature 578, 24-27 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-00272-5

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