Award
National Institute of General Medical Sciences 1R35GM158085-01
Analysis of active genetic elements in germline and somatic cell lineages
Recipient
University of California, San Diego
Award Amount
$376,498.00
Ceiling
$376,498.00
Awarded
July 28, 2025
Identifier
1R35GM158085-01
This award supports research on CRISPR-based gene-drive systems in germline and somatic cells to develop next-generation tools for blocking malaria transmission and exploring gene therapy strategies.
Description
My group has developed novel CRISPR-based gene-drive and allelic-drive systems that copy gene cassettes or favored allelic variants from their chromosome of origin to the homologous chromosome with high efficiency in germline and somatic cells. In this proposal, we will advance these game-changing tools to develop next-generation germline drive systems, which can be applied to block transmission of malarial parasites in mosquitos; and in somatic cells, we will dissect the mechanistic basis for the differential activities of Cas9 versus single-strand nicking derivatives (Nickases) to provide potential alternative gene therapy strategies that employ functional sequences on a homolog chromosome as a repair template to correct defective alleles on the mutated chromosome.