For nearly two decades, researcher Jesse Owens and his team at the University of Â鶹´«Ã½ at ²Ñ¨¡²Ô´Ç²¹ (JABSOM) have been pursuing a bold vision: harnessing the natural ability of DNA to move itself to treat genetic disease. Supported by a $2 million grant, their latest breakthrough, published in , marks a major step forward in precision gene therapy.
In nature, transposons, sometimes called “selfish DNA,” can jump around the genome, a phenomenon first discovered in corn by Nobel laureate Barbara McClintock. Owens¡¯ team repurposed this mechanism to deliver healthy genes into cells, replacing faulty ones.
“What we¡¯ve done in our lab is take this natural jumping mechanism and use it to deliver healthy genes into the genome, essentially replacing a faulty one with a working copy,” Owens said.
Early transposon systems were limited by random insertion, but Owens¡¯ lab engineered a way to target “safe harbor” regions of DNA, avoiding cancer-related genes. Their results found an average of 1.2 successful insertions per cell, a more than thousandfold improvement over previous efforts.
“That means nearly every cell we worked with received the new gene. It¡¯s a huge jump,” Owens said.
With National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding, the team plans to apply the technology to CAR T-cell immunotherapy, potentially improving cancer treatments.
“This research began here in Â鶹´«Ã½, and it¡¯s now on the brink of something that could impact lives worldwide,” Owens reflected. “It¡¯s exciting to see how far we¡¯ve come and how much farther we can go.”
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