University of Illinois researchers develop system to help with complicated genome work

In Illinois, genomic research has unlocked the capability to edit the genomes of living cells; yet so far, the effects of such changes must be examined in isolation. In contrast, the complex traits that are of interest in both fundamental and applied research, such as those related to microbial biofuel production, involve many genes acting in concert. A newly developed system will now allow researchers to fine-tune the activity of multiple genes simultaneously.

Researchers from the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign described their new functional genomics system, which they named multi-functional genome-wide CRISPR (MAGIC), in a recent publication in Nature Communications.