TEHRAN – The second national genome editing symposium will be held on November 28 at the Iran’s National Institute of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology with the focus on CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats), Mehr reported.

Genome editing (also called gene editing) is a group of technologies that give scientists the ability to change an organism's DNA. These technologies allow genetic material to be added, removed, or altered at particular locations in the genome. Several approaches to genome editing have been developed.

The event highlights the technique of CRISPR, which is a family of DNA sequences found within the genomes of prokaryotic organisms such as bacteria and archaea.

The symposium also shed light on the CRISPR/Cas9 software tools and their role in genome editing.

CRISPR-Cas9 was adapted from a naturally occurring genome editing system in bacteria. The bacteria capture snippets of DNA from invading viruses and use them to create DNA segments known as CRISPR arrays.

SB/MQ/MG