Skoltech researchers Regina Shebanova, Natalia Nikitchina and Ilya Mazunin have co-authored a paper “Targeted Modification of Mammalian DNA by a Novel Type V Cas12a Endonuclease from Ruminococcus bromii 3,4” that has been recently released in International Journal of Molecular Sciences. The study is focused on the DNA editor RbCas12a isolated from bacterium Ruminococcus bromii sp. The enzyme belongs to type V Cas12a nucleases. The scientists have demonstrated that RbCas12a is able to efficiently cleave target DNA templates, using the particularly high accessibility of PAM 5′-YYN and a relatively wide temperature range from 20 °C to 42 °C. They have also revealed that the human-optimized RbCas12a nuclease is also active in mammalian cells, and can be applied for efficient deletion incorporation into the human genome. The researchers conclude that the enzyme shows potential for clinical and biotechnological applications within the field of genome editing. Full text of the paper is available here.