Applications Of Genome Editing Technology In The Targeted Therapy Of Human Diseases Bolster The Genome Editing/Genome Engineering Market

Using powerful, proven next-generation sequencing (NGS) and microarray solutions, researchers are now able to read and understand genetic variations at new depths, more easily and quickly than before, enabling a wide variety of genomics applications. As a result, discoveries that were unimaginable even a few years ago are becoming routine.

For instance, CRISPR-Cas technology has the potential to carry out genome editing functions or alter gene expression for gene silencing, DNA free gene editing, homology-directed repair, transcriptional repression, knockout screening, and embryonic stem cell.

Genome editing means CRISPR to most people. Yet methods using zinc-finger nucleases, transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs), and meganucleases have their own unique strengths. All these techniques rely on cellular DNA–repair mechanisms. Options that don’t—base editing, epigenetic editing, and site-specific recombinases—offer further advantages.

China hosts the world’s largest genomics research institute, the Beijing Genomics Institute in order to sustain the growth of the genome editing/genome engineering market.

Big pharmaceutical establishments have also united with venture capitalists to provide funding to the start-ups. In 2015, Bayer (BAYRY) financed USD 335 million and in the very same year, Celgene combined with Abingworth invested USD 64 million in CRISPR Therapeutics (CRSP).

There is a potential of genomics in the food industry due to which market players are focusing on launching dedicated products and services for food quality and safety testing. For instance, in June 2017, Neogen (US) announced NGS services for the food industry, allowing food companies to test and identify all bacteria in a sample using a single genomic test.

The NIH recently granted 21 somatic cell genome editing grants of almost USD 86 million over the next half a decade. These endowments are the foremost to be granted through the Somatic Cell Genome Editing (SCGE) program that was initiated in January 2018 with NIH Common Fund.

How could Global Genome Editing/Genome Engineering Market Address The COVID-19 concerns?

The outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has infected more than 100,000 people worldwide with over 3,000 deaths since December 2019. There is no cure for COVID-19 and the vaccine development is estimated to require 12-18 months. Genome Editing/ Genome Engineering can effectively help to find the cure for the coronavirus. In fact, various scientists are also working on the same to find a cure for the disease.

For example, Tim Abbott, a Ph.D. candidate at Stanford University’s Bioengineering Department, checked the results of an experiment that he was running as a part of a team using the gene manipulating Crispr technology to fight coronavirus. Using an approach, the lab called PAC-MAN (Prophylactic Antiviral Crispr in huMAN cells). After Abbott analyzed the data, he finds the coronavirus targeted Crispr had reduced the amount of virus in the solution by 90 percent. If effectively delivered, this kill rate, they theorized, might be enough to stop the disease in a human.

The PAC-MAN (Prophylactic Antiviral Crispr in huMAN cells) approach is potentially a rapidly implementable pan-coronavirus strategy to deal with emerging pandemic strains and it is also being tested by other bioengineering departments to find out the cure to the disease.