How biology pulls it off!

Gene editing is a very powerful process both for therapy and general research. With precision editing, we can insert, delete, invert, or duplicate specific pieces of DNA across the genome. With this, we can study what effect these changes have in the cell and even restore normal cell function in scenarios where a mutation has caused the cell to do the wrong thing. But your DNA isn’t a simple string, it’s folded many times in 3D. How does this shape effect the accuracy of our gene editing? My talk focusses on how we can use information about this structure to improve gene editing efficiency.

When we hear the word fracture, we usually think the worst: that our house is about to collapse on top of us, or that we need to spend the whole summer stuck in a cast. But in living tissues, breaking is not always a bad thing. Many organisms use controlled ruptures to shape their bodies, thanks to their ability to organise themselves, sense damage, and repair it. Come and discover how very different organisms take advantage of this process to reproduce, develop, hatch, and many more processes.