Talk Summary:
A large proportion of human genetic diseases are caused by single nucleotide mutations, motivating the recent development of CRISPR-based genome editing technologies capable of precisely genomic correction. One approach, called base editing, utilizes nucleotide deaminase enzymes directed by CRISPR-Cas binding domains to install single letter genetic changes. Here I will discuss the development of base editors, recent updates, and other nascent technologies capable of small sequence edits.

Presenter Biography:
Ben Kleinstiver is an Assistant Professor at in the Center for Genomic Medicine at Mass General Hospital (MGH) and Harvard Medical School (HMS), and is the Kayden-Lambert MGH Research Scholar. Dr. Kleinstiver completed his Honours B.Sc. in Biochemistry at the University of Toronto, his PhD at Western University in Dr. David Edgell’s laboratory, and then completed his postdoctoral fellowship at MGH and Harvard. Some of the research goals in the Kleinstiver lab are to engineer & improve genome editing technologies, to optimize methods to accelerate the development of CRISPR enzymes, and to transform these safer, more effective, and versatile tools into new classes of genetic therapies.

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