Reviving proteins from billions of years ago to fight diseases in human cells
english.elpais.com
english.elpais.com
What the researchers are doing is inferring a probable sequence of the ancestor of many modern (currently existing) proteins. This inferred protein sequence can be expressed, and then assayed to test how its activities might differ from the modern proteins it was derived from.
This is an exciting approach to exploring a possible evolutionary past, but nothing has been revived -- we cannot know whether the "revived" protein ever existed.
> The earlier proteins may be able to do things that the current CRISPRs cannot, such as cutting both double and single-stranded DNA and RNA sequences at the same time.
To my uninformed reading, this seems less predictable, maybe more potent/capable but if I'm slicing DNA, I want as few unknowns as possible?
Super cool research, but like so many of these articles I don't see any real world impact for a few generations at least.
I found it slightly absurd to read the motivation ”this work is important, because it opens up a huge toolbox for creating better CRISPR systems.” considering CRISPR as biotechnology was still a marginally known frontline research tool at the start of the previous decade. Now it's ubiquitous to the point of being viewed as almost indispensible.
The really interesting motivation to me though, is the other one:
“Thanks to this recovery, we can see how the immune system of microbes became less harmful to its carriers and increasingly specific for each virus.”