Khagani Eynullazadeh has been in a scientific visit to the Eppley Cancer Research Institute, University of Nebraska Medical Centre (UNMC),USA
Researcher from the Institute of Genetic Resources Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences Khagani Eynullazadeh has been in a scientific visit to the Eppley Cancer Research Institute, University of Nebraska Medical Centre (UNMC),USA from 08.08.2016 to 17.11.2016 to conduct research on the topic “Studying catalytic activity of DNA polymerase and feasibility of application of CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing tool to edit mutated gene in yeast”.
Research was conducted under the supervision of the Professor Yuri Pavlov from Nebraska University USA and was supported by Genetic Resources Institute of Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS) and USA Nebraska University.
The goal and the results of the research: The main object of the research was studying catalytic activity of DNA polymerase and application of CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing tool to edit mutated gene in yeast.
DNA polymerase is the main enzyme that is responsible for DNA replication. This enzyme is involved in the DNA replication process which is important to pass genetic information to the new generations. If that enzyme doesn`t function properly it will cause problem in replication and lead to the mutation accumulation in the new DNA strand. Those mutations can lead to severe genetic disorders as well as cancer. Hence studying catalytic activity of that enzyme to identify role of amino acid residues in protein is scientifically important.
Application possibilities and significance of research results: CRISPR Cas9 is one of the very recent and the most advanced technologies in Molecular Genetics. This technology is based on defensive immune system of bacteria against viruses. This technology allows to make any kind of changes in the genome of almost all species. Application of this technique is very wide from editing mutation in genes to create mutation free, genetically healthy organism to delivering specific genes to genome of organisms to get species with desired features. For example, in plant biology it can be applied to create new drought resistance plants to cultivate in drought condition. However, most revolutionary aspect of this technology is its capacity to apply to human genome, to edit genetic mutations in human embryo to make birth of healthy individuals. Recently it was applied to treat patients with blood disorders such as Thalassemia which is one of the most common genetic disorders in Azerbaijani population as well. In the nearest future this method will allow to treat patients with genetic disorders.