article thumbnail

Viral Vectors 101: What is a Virus (and a Viral Vector)?

addgene Blog

Viruses are simple – a genome packaged in a protein shell (Taylor, 2014). They’re so simple that we can’t even decide if they’re alive or not. Yet these simple, small particles have quite the outsized impact – and not just on the disease front.

Virus 97
article thumbnail

Researchers engineer in vivo delivery system for prime editing, partially restoring vision in mice

Broad Institute

Williams January 8, 2024 Credit: Susanna Hamilton, Broad Communications Researchers have developed virus-like particles that can deliver gene-editing cargo to cells, including those in the mouse brain. Engineered virus-like particles for transient delivery of prime editor ribonucleoprotein complexes in vivo. By Sarah C.P.

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

Viral Vectors 101: Viral Vector Elements

addgene Blog

For safety and production reasons, multiple plasmids with many components are used to package lab grown viruses. So, if you’ve ever wondered what goes into ‘making virus’ or what gag and pol stand for, we demystify all components of viral vectors here! It can be intimidating at first to look at so many plasmid maps and protocols!

Virus 98
article thumbnail

Researchers reprogram gene therapy viral vectors to bind specific protein targets

Broad Institute

By Allessandra DiCorato July 19, 2023 Credit: Kevin Middleton, Broad Communications A three-dimensional model of adeno-associated viruses (AAVs), which scientists have engineered to package and deliver gene therapies to cells in the body.

article thumbnail

New gene delivery vehicle shows promise for human brain gene therapy

Broad Institute

But FDA-approved forms of the most commonly used vehicle for packaging and delivering these therapies to target cells, adeno-associated viruses (AAVs), aren’t able to efficiently cross the blood-brain barrier at high levels and deliver therapeutic cargo.

Therapies 137
article thumbnail

Viral Vectors 101: An Introduction to AAV

addgene Blog

Adeno-associated virus (AAV) is a single stranded, Parvoviridae DNA virus, packaged in a non-enveloped icosahedral capsid, that can be used to express genes of interest in cell and animal models. This post was contributed by guest blogger Didem Goz Ayturk with edits and updates from Addgenies Karen Guerin and Susanna Stroik.

Virus 63
article thumbnail

Scientists map the locations of hundreds to thousands of cell types across a mammalian brain

Broad Institute

The studies are part of a package of 10 papers in Nature that take distinct, yet complementary, approaches to mapping the mouse nervous system at the single-cell level. The package also includes the spatial, single-cell atlas of the mouse brain and spinal cord that was led by Wang and Liu and was first published online in September in Nature.

DNA 140