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Think of them as Swiss Army knives for DNA.
Zinc-finger proteins can cut, splice or tweak a targeted gene, and a new “open source” method for making customized zinc-finger proteins aimed at specific genes will give scientists easier access to this powerful genetic tool.
“There’s tremendous potential for the technology,” both for biology research and for altering a person’s DNA to treat genetic diseases such as sickle cell anemia, says lead scientist J. Keith Joung, a protein engineering expert at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.