Cyagen Biosciences

A University of Iowa-led team of researchers has used the gene editing method called CRISPR-Cas9 to disrupt a mutant gene that is responsible for some forms of glaucoma, one of the most common causes of irreversible blindness. The study involves the elimination of the mutated myocilin protein from a mouse model of human glaucoma and cultured human cells through the use of CRISPR-Cas9 , which can alter DNA sequences and gene function. Mutations in myocilin are implicated in juvenile- and adult-onset primary open-angle glaucoma. In their experiments, researchers found that removing the mutated protein by disrupting the mutant myociln results in lowered intraocular pressure, which in turn prevents glaucomatous damage to the eye. "As scientists we don't want to just discover a diseased gene, we want to understand what the gene does and, in this case, have a better understanding of glaucoma so that it can be more effectively treated," says Val Sheffield, MD, PhD, Carve

Last month, the Nobel Foundation recognized Jeffrey Hall, Michael Rosbash, and Michael Young "for their discoveries of molecular mechanisms controlling the circadian rhythm" 1 . This 24-hour "clock" influences many physiological processes, and has a well-understood biochemical basis elucidated by the work of many researchers over the past few decades. Interestingly, in addition daily circadian cycles, many organisms also display physiological cycles repeating twice a day. Most obviously, coastal animals possess a powerful “circatidal clock”, which oscillated with the 12.4-hour ebb and flow of the tides, influencing locomotion, metabolism, and many other physiological processes 2 . Even in humans, body temperature, hormone levels, blood pressure, and other functions fluctuate with a predictable 12-hour period, and some human diseases have even been associated with perturbed 12-hour cycles 3-9 . In a fascinating recent study, researchers used mathematical gene expr