A major enzyme manufacturer has signed an agreement with a Chinese university to explore uses for a protein claimed to be a powerful alternative to the popular genome-editing tool CRISPR–Cas9.
Several scientists have failed to reproduce the results of the paper that first made the claim and doubt that the protein, NgAgo, works as a gene editor.
It is not clear whether the company — Novozymes of Bagsværd, Denmark — plans to use NgAgo for gene editing. “We have tested the technology and seen indications that it might be useful, but it is very early in its development and still needs a lot of work before we can determine if it is relevant for us,” said company spokesperson Dongyi Chen.
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