Gene editing powers intelligent nucleic acid hydrogels: latest results from Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine

Recently, Tan Weihong, Director of the Institute of Molecular Medicine of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was invited to publish a commentary titled "CRISPR Technology Empowers Smart Nucleic Acid Hydrogels" online in the world's top scientific journal Science (IF=41.037), introducing the latest progress in constructing smart hydrogel systems using CRISPR gene editing technology. The system can be used as a portable, rapid and quantitative biosensor for detecting specific strains of dangerous viral pathogens, distinguishing genotypes of pathogenic bacteria and human DNA, and identifying cell-free tumor DNA mutations in vitro. Combining DNA hydrogels with the CRISPR-Cas system will help improve the precision, efficiency and spatiotemporal controllability of gene editing-related applications. This is the first Science article with the Institute of Molecular Medicine of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, based at Renji Hospital, as the first affiliation. The first author is Han Da, a researcher at the Institute of Molecular Medicine, and the co-corresponding authors are researcher Li Juan and academician Tan Weihong.

CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) is an immune defense mechanism unique to bacteria that can selectively excise viral genes from their chromosomes to protect themselves. Using this mechanism, scientists developed CRISPR-based gene editing technology, which is currently the most effective and most widely used gene editing technology.

The design and preparation of DNA hydrogels has been one of the focuses of widespread attention in the biomedical field in recent years. A DNA hydrogel is a hydrophilic material between fluid and solid formed by the self-assembly of DNA molecules, with excellent biocompatibility and multiple designable stimulus-response capabilities, and is widely used in smart diagnostic and therapeutic fields such as drug delivery and artificial tissues. However, current DNA-based hydrogel systems are complex to design, and rapid recognition and response to external stimuli usually requires high-concentration trigger signals, limiting their application in biosensing and diagnostics.

In the paper, academician Tan Weihong, together with researcher Han Da and researcher Li Juan, introduced a method for constructing smart DNA hydrogels that uses the DNA-cutting enzyme Cas12a for programmable nucleic acid cleavage. This method can construct highly sensitive, highly selective and modular DNA hydrogels that can be applied in virus detection, cell culture, circuit control, signal transmission and many other fields, greatly expanding the application scope of smart DNA hydrogels and marking the entry of CRISPR gene editing technology into the materials field. It is worth noting that, as a pioneer in this field, Tan Weihong's team has built a series of DNA hydrogel research platforms based on functional nucleic acids since 2008, solving a series of challenging problems in the field.

The Institute of Molecular Medicine of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine was established under the leadership of Professor Tan Weihong, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and of the World Academy of Sciences for the advancement of science in developing countries, and is built on the entity of Renji Hospital affiliated to the School of Medicine. The institute focuses on the discovery of biomarkers of major diseases, molecular drugs, molecular imaging probes, early diagnosis by molecular pathology, the pathogenesis of major diseases, novel POCT detectors and wearable detection devices, single-cell sequencing-based personalized diagnosis and treatment, drug resistance of pathogenic bacteria, and the impact of gut microbiota on health, carrying out in-depth multidisciplinary cross-disciplinary cooperation with clinical disciplines, focusing on the biomedical field, giving play to the leading advantages of molecular medicine and clinical medicine, and jointly accelerating the construction of Shanghai's globally influential science and technology innovation center. (China Daily Shanghai Bureau) Source: China Daily.