The University of Pennsylvania researchers have achieved a major breakthrough in human artificial chromosome technology, developing a new method that simplifies the construction of HACs. This innovation promises to speed up DNA research and could significantly impact gene therapy and biotechnology, offering a reliable alternative to current gene delivery systems and broadening the potential for genetic engineering across various fields.
Artificial human chromosomes that function within human cells hold the potential to revolutionize gene therapies, including treatments for certain cancers, and have numerous laboratory uses. However, significant technical challenges have impeded their progress.. Prior methods for making HACs have been limited by the fact that the DNA constructs used to make them tend to join together—“multimerize”—in unpredictably long series and with unpredictable rearrangements.
In their study, the Penn Medicine researchers devised improved HACs with multiple innovations: These included larger initial DNA constructs containing larger and more complex centromeres, which allow HACs to form from single copies of these constructs. For delivery to cells, they used a yeast-cell-based delivery system capable of carrying larger cargoes.
The researchers showed that their method was much more efficient at forming viable HACs compared to standard methods, and yielded HACs that could reproduce themselves during cell division.The potential advantages of artificial chromosomes—assuming they can be delivered easily to cells and operate like natural chromosomes—are many.