New BLISS technique – one step closer to genome editing in living organisms

To be able to edit DNA in living organisms would provide significant opportunities for advances in medicine, as well as agricultural biology. The CRISPR-based tool is a promising approach, which has now progressed further as Nicola Crosetto (Karolinska Institutet/SciLifeLab) and his colleagues present the novel BLISS method for identifying DNA double-strand breaks in tissues.

The paper, published in Nature Communications, presents the Breaks Labeling In Situ and Sequencing (BLISS) technique for discovering DNA double-strand breaks. It reveals that BLISS has many advantages over existing tools as it can label and show breaks anywhere in the genome of tissue samples – with high precision.

One application where it is crucial to have a sensitive and quantitative method for detecting DNA double-strand breaks is the CRISPR/Cas system for genome editing.

“The off-target DNA cleavage of the enzymes used needs to be thoroughly assessed before the CRISPR/Cas technology can be safely used in e.g. a clinical setting,” says Reza Mirzazadeh, co-author of the current paper.