"Surprising Discovery: Algae, Snails, and More House Thousands of DNA-cutters"
Scientists at MIT's McGovern Institute for Brain Research have discovered thousands of programmable DNA-cutting enzymes called Fanzors in various organisms, including algae, snails, and amoebas. Fanzors are RNA-guided enzymes that can be programmed to cut DNA at specific sites, similar to CRISPR. This newfound diversity of Fanzor enzymes provides researchers with a wide range of programmable tools that could be utilized in research and medicine, potentially leading to the development of new genome editing tools.
