GenomeWeb/ABRF

“The Emergence of Gene Editing as a Standard Lab Tool”

Click here to access the webinar.

This online seminar, part of the GenomeWeb/ABRF 2016 Webinar Series, will cover the history of gene editing methods like TALENs and CRISPR/Cas and provide an overview of various gene editing technologies.

The emergence of these new technologies in the last decade “has triggered a veritable revolution as laboratories worldwide have begun to introduce or correct mutations in cells and organisms with the level of ease and efficiency not previously possible,” the Journal of the American Medical Association noted in 2015.

In this webinar, Eric Kmiec, Ph.D., of Christiana Care Health System’s Helen F. Graham Cancer Center & Research Institute and Channabasavaiah Gurumurthy of the University of Nebraska Medical Center will discuss some of the origins of gene editing and how the field emerged from a series of basic science observations to the dynamic fast-paced field dominating research journals today.

Kmiec and Gurumurthy will also discuss some of the factors that can influence the frequency and efficacy with which gene editing takes place, including cell cycle progression, and the introduction of specific double-strand breaks at specified sites relative to the target.

The second part of the webinar will focus on latest developments in genome editing technologies: specifically, different genome editing technologies will be compared with a special emphasis on the CRISPR/Cas system.

Speakers:

Dr. Eric Kmiec
Director, Gene Editing Institute
Christiana Care Health System’s Helen F. Graham Cancer Center & Research Institute

Recognized as an early practitioner and a pioneer in the field of gene editing, Dr. Eric Kmiec is the Founder and Director of the Gene Editing Institute at the Helen F Graham Cancer Center & Research Institute, Christiana Healthcare System with faculty appointments at the University of Delaware, the Wistar Institute and Georgetown University Medical School. His laboratory has been supported by the National Institute of Health as a principle investigator for 22 years and has also received funding from the High Q Foundation, Hereditary Disease Foundation, and the American Cancer Society, the March of Dimes and a variety of biotechnology companies. He has authored over 140 peer-reviewed journal publications most of them in gene editing or DNA repair and recombination and edited several books on gene therapy. Dr. Kmiec has 15 issued patents with 30 applications and founded two biotechnology companies (Kimeragen , now Cibus, in San Diego California, and Orphagenix LLC). He is currently a Senior Consultant and member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the gene editing company, ETAGEN located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He has received numerous research and community service medals and awards and was honored as Eminent Scholar at Marshall University in 2011. From 1999-2008, Dr. Kmiec was a full, tenured Professor of Biology at the University of Delaware and Director of the Applied Genomics Laboratory at the Delaware Biotechnology Institute.

Channabasavaiah Gurumurthy
Director, Transgenic Core Facility
University of Nebraska Medical Center

CB Gurumurthy is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Developmental Neuroscience, Munroe Meyer Institute for Genetics and Rehabilitation, and he serves as the Director of UNMC Mouse Genome Engineering Core Facility at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. His research interests are genome engineering and technology development. He is actively developing newer genome editing technologies and also develop widely-usable animal models for basic and drug discovery research. He received his BVSC (DVM) from Bangalore Veterinary College, India and MVSC & PHD in Veterinary Virology from Indian Veterinary Research Institute with a Gold Medal distinction in MVSC. Prior to his current position, he served as a Molecular Biology Scientist, Drug Discovery Research at Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, and then he moved to Northwestern University, Chicago for a Post-Doctoral work in Cancer Biology and Mouse Molecular Genetics. Recently, he also received his Executive MBA from University of Nebraska at Omaha.

Special thanks to New England Biolabs for sponsoring the GenomeWeb/ABRF 2016 webinar series!

About the series:
GenomeWeb has partnered with the Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities to produce a series of online seminars highlighting methods, techniques, and instrumentation that support life science research. More information about ABRF and its activities is available here and information about NEB’s educational initiatives is available here. Please check GenomeWeb’s webinar schedule for future webinars in this series.