A team of scientists from Stanford University is working with researchers at the Molecular Foundry, a nanoscience user facility located at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), to develop a gene-targeting, antiviral agent against COVID-19.
Last year, Stanley Qi, an assistant professor in the departments of bioengineering, and chemical and systems biology at Stanford University and his team had begun working on a technique called PAC-MAN – or Prophylactic Antiviral CRISPR in human cells – that uses the gene-editing tool CRISPR to fight influenza.
But that all changed in January, when news of the COVID-19 pandemic emerged. Qi and his team were suddenly confronted with a mysterious new virus for which no one had a clear solution. “So we thought, ‘Why don’t we try using our PAC-MAN technology to fight it?’” said Qi.
Since late March, Qi and his team have been collaborating with a group led by Michael Connolly, a principal scientific engineering associate in the Biological Nanostructures Facility at Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry, to develop a system that delivers PAC-MAN into the cells of a patient.
Read more at DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Image: Lipitoids, which self-assemble with DNA and RNA, could serve as cellular delivery systems for antiviral therapies that prevent COVID-19 and other coronavirus infections. (Credit: R.N. Zuckermann)