Science spotlight: Seamless’ programmable recombinases, Elicio’s cancer vaccine and more

Seamless Therapeutics GmbH, in collaboration with Dresden University of Technology, published a Nature Bioetchnology paper describing how it improved the efficiency and programmability of recombinases to turn a gene editing research tool into a therapeutic platform. 

Recombinases offer an alternative gene editing mechanism that, unlike the more commonly used nucleases, does not involve cutting of the DNA, and therefore could be safer and more versatile. They can execute multiple genome engineering functions, including inversion, excision, exchange and insertion from small to larger DNA fragments. However, while recombinases are widely used in scientific research, they have had limited therapeutic application due to low editing efficiency, high off-target activity, and limited programmability to act on new target sites. ...