David Bikard - Studying And Fighting Pathogenic Bacteria...
Channel: Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques (IHÉS)
Date: 2016-03-26

Studying And Fighting Pathogenic Bacteria with the Help of Crispr

Cas  systems  have  emerged  has  a  powerful  biotechnological tool.  The  Cas9  protein  is  a  RNA-guided nuclease that can be easily reprogrammed to target any sequence of 
interest. Our work focuses on  the development of CRISPR-Cas9 tools to edit bacterial genomes and control gene expression. In particular, we investigate how these tools can be used in high-throughput screens to perform functional screens. Recently we have also shown how CRISPR system can be used as sequence-specific  antimicrobial.  The  Cas9  protein  can  kill  bacteria  when  directed  to  cut  in their  chromosome.  Guide  RNAs  can  be  programmed  to  kill  Bacteria  carrying  antibiotic 
resistance  or  virulence  genes  specifically,  and  the  CRISPR  system  can  delivered  to  bacterial populations using phage capsids.