{"id":176600,"date":"2023-04-28T08:00:43","date_gmt":"2023-04-28T18:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=176600"},"modified":"2023-04-28T09:07:07","modified_gmt":"2023-04-28T19:07:07","slug":"crispr-comes-to-uh-gets-149k-boost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2023\/04\/28\/crispr-comes-to-uh-gets-149k-boost\/","title":{"rendered":"Genetic editing tech CRISPR comes to UH<\/abbr>, gets $149K<\/abbr> boost"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"students
Students learning how to perform digital PCR<\/abbr> to analyze copy numbers of transformants<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa Assistant Professor Zhi-Yan “Rock” Du<\/strong> from the Department of Molecular Biosciences and Bioengineering (MBBE<\/abbr>) has received a $149,000 grant<\/a> from the USDA<\/abbr>\u2019s National Institute of Food and Agriculture to jumpstart a project that will introduce the UH<\/abbr> System to CRISPR<\/abbr>, the basis of genetic editing technology.<\/p>\n

Motivated to educate Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>\u2019s current and future workforce in this cutting-edge technology—and to better represent Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders in science and technology disciplines—Du has initiated the first official CRISPR<\/abbr> laboratory course at UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa, in addition to CRISPR<\/abbr> workshops for baccalaureate and two-year postsecondary students within the UH<\/abbr> System.<\/p>\n

\"Zhi-Yan
Zhi-Yan “Rock” Du<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“This education project will address the educational disparities and needs of curriculum development, instructional delivery systems and expand student career opportunities,” said Du. “The long-term goal of this project is to develop agricultural and science literacy in Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> by building competencies in molecular biology, genetics, biotechnology, agricultural science and science communication.”<\/p>\n

Du and his graduate students and teaching assistants conducted an MBBE<\/abbr>\/BIOL<\/abbr> 401Lab Molecular Biotechnology Lab-Gene Editing by CRISPR<\/abbr>\/Cas9<\/abbr> in spring 2023 and have also planned workshops in summer and fall, with the first workshop to launch in July 2023. Students will also utilize materials such as tropical maize from a current research project<\/a> for this new education opportunity.<\/p>\n

CRISPR<\/abbr> for the future, food of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span><\/h2>\n

In the past decade, CRISPR<\/abbr> genetic engineering tools have become an essential technology in numerous industries, including food and agriculture, drug development and therapy, as well as ongoing scientific research; however, Du said that CRISPR<\/abbr> systems are “not well understood in the general community, leading to fears and misunderstandings about genetic engineering and an overall anti-science outlook.”<\/p>\n

“Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> is heavily dependent on food imports,” said Du. “It\u2019s urgent to simulate local agriculture and workforce development. The grant will promote the education of college students on novel non-transgenic genome editing technologies, such as CRISPR<\/abbr>\/Cas<\/abbr> RNP<\/abbr> (ribonucleoprotein) with gene gun\/particle bombardment methods. Students will learn and practice the new genome-editing technologies. We hope to engage more students from UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa and other campuses, including community colleges, in food and agricultural careers for our future food security and quality.”<\/p>\n

Read more at the CTAHR<\/abbr> website.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"three
Graduate students in Du’s MBBE<\/abbr> lab<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The education project will ultimately address educational disparities and develop agricultural and science literacy in Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[222,212,951,1050,1466,1363,1314,1010,73,9],"class_list":["post-176600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-news","tag-agriculture","tag-college-of-tropical-agriculture-and-human-resilience","tag-food","tag-genetics","tag-manoa-enhancing-student-success","tag-manoa-research","tag-manoa-sustainability","tag-molecular-biosciences-and-bioengineering","tag-sustainability","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176600"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":176613,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176600\/revisions\/176613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}