Non-viral, polymer-based systems for inducing
CRISPR/Cas and Base Editing
The CRISPR technology is a powerful gene-editing system and already widely used in biomedical research. With therapeutic approaches based on CRISPR/Cas9 being under development for treating various diseases, it may also be considered as one of the most promising strategies in personalized cancer therapy. Developing CRISPR/Cas further, base editing has been introduced, that allows for exchanging defined nucleotides in the genome. More specifically, this includes the conversion from cytosine into thymine (C to T; cytosine base editing CBE)), resulting in a C•G to T•A substitution, or the conversion from adenosine into guanine (A to G; adenosine base editing (ABE), leading to an A•T to G•C substitution).
However, CRISPR/Cas-based technologies are also associated with issues, including the efficient delivery of the CRISPR components into target cells or target organs. This requires the development of nano-based delivery systems, for formulating Cas9 along with the single guide RNA (sgRNA).
This project aims at the development of polymeric nanocarriers capable of delivering Cas9 as mRNA or minicircle DNA (mcDNA) and the sgRNA. While this may rely on the combination of two nanocarriers, our main goal, based on the existing polymer platform in the Aigner group, are polymers for the simultaneous delivery of both CRISPR/Cas components in a single nanocarrier. These are analyzed in reporter cell lines in vitro and then transferred to relevant in vitro / ex vivo tumor models, prior to testing in vivo.