Minneapolis/St. Paul (MN) - A multi-institutional team of researchers, including scientists at the University of Minnesota Medical School, have developed a powerful tool for genomic research and medicine. The robust method will allow researchers to generate synthetic enzymes that can target and manipulate DNA sequences for inactivation or repair. This piece of good news comes in light of speculation about possible "gene doping" applications in the field of sports. Building a better melon, curing hereditary diseases, or winning a gold medal at the Olympics: it might all be the same in the eyes of the general public. However, current advances, such as this, provide many opportunities and benefits, including to those suffering from hereditary diseases such as sickle cell anemia.

The new tool has great potential, and may allow researchers to correct genetic disorders and diseases. In the July 25 issue of Molecular Cell, researchers, including Dr. Dan Voytas, director of the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center for Transposon Research at the University of Minnesota Medical School, described a mean of inducing genomic modifications in many types of cells. The tool will be available through an "Open Source" strategy making it publicly available and free to researchers.

"Recent work has shown that ZFNs (zinc-finger nuclei) can alter genes with high efficiency in cells from plants or model organisms like fruit flies, roundworms, and zebra fish, and in human cells," said J. Keith Joung, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School and director of the Molecular Pathology Unit at MGH, principal investigator of the study. "Our method will enable academic researchers to rapidly create high quality ZFNs for genes of interest and will stimulate use of this technology in biological research and potentially gene therapy."

"With the development of OPEN, many more academic labs will be able to construct, test and use ZFNs in their biological research projects," Joung said. "OPEN should also stimulate additional research into the potential application of ZFNs for gene therapy of single-gene disorders, such as sickle cell anemia and cystic fibrosis."

In the past few days, a German documentary has gained a lot of attention for showing evidence of the availability of "gene doping" in China. The lines between what constitutes therapy and what looks like playing god may be blurring further.