An Iowa State University team of researchers has developed a type of hybrid proteins that can make double-strand DNA breaks at specific sites in living cells, possibly leading to better gene replacement and gene editing therapies. Bing Yang, assistant professor of genetics, development and cell biology, and his colleagues developed the hybrid protein by joining parts of two different bacterial proteins. One is called a TAL effector, which functions to find the specific site on the gene that needs to be cut, and the other is an enzyme called a nuclease that cuts the DNA strands... 
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