Since the advent of CRISPR-Cas9, a groundbreaking gene-editing technology that enables precise genomic modifications via a short RNA guide sequence, there has been a marked increase in the accessibility and application of this technology across various fields. The success of CRISPR-Cas9 has spurred further investment and led to the discovery of additional CRISPR systems, including CRISPR-Cas13. Distinct from Cas9, which targets DNA, Cas13 targets RNA, offering unique advantages for gene modulation. We focus on Cas13d, a variant known for its collateral activity where it non-specifically cleaves adjacent RNA molecules upon activation, a feature critical to its function. We introduce DeepFM-Crispr, a novel deep learning model developed to predict the on-target efficiency and evaluate the off-target effects of Cas13d. This model harnesses a large language model to generate comprehensive representations rich in evolutionary and structural data, thereby enhancing predictions of RNA secondary structures and overall sgRNA efficacy. A transformer-based architecture processes these inputs to produce a predictive efficacy score. Comparative experiments show that DeepFM-Crispr not only surpasses traditional models but also outperforms recent state-of-the-art deep learning methods in terms of prediction accuracy and reliability.

A new study published in the journal Cell Systems on November 20, 2019, reports the use of machine learning to help form complex cell architectures from pluripotent stem cells, a sophisticated technology that could solve multiple issues that currently hampers the production of artificial tissues and organs. Medical scientists faced with irreparably damaged organs have long wanted to know how to stimulate their regeneration or to replace them with new ones, to prolong survival and to provide improved quality of life. Another equally important area of research involves creating artificial tissues which are identical to those in the body, in order to help understand how disease processes evolve and which drugs can be used to treat such disorders. This means that scientists must know how to direct the development of stem cells in the desired pattern to form multiple tissues in the right way. Pluripotent ('capable of multiple tasks') stem cells are cells that can divide indefinitely or can develop into any of the three germ layers found in the early embryo.

Researchers say they've successfully created a more powerful computer-like human cell that could eventually be used to help monitor one's health or even fight against cancer and other illnesses. Using the gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9, researchers were able to model a human cell after a computer and make what they are referring to as a'program scalable circuits.' 'This cell computer may sound like a very revolutionary idea, but that's not the case," said Martin Fussenegger, Professor of Biotechnology and Bioengineering at the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering at ETH Zurich in Basel. 'The human body itself is a large computer. Its metabolism has drawn on the computing power of trillions of cells since time immemorial.'

The so-called "year without a summer," 1816, was bleak, if not strangely gothic. Mount Tambora in Indonesia had erupted the year before, pitching volcanic ash into the atmosphere and obscuring the sun. Torrential rains pressed deep into the year, resulting in global crop failures. The birds quieted down by midday, as darkness descended, and for days at a time, a group of writers huddled by candlelight in a rented mansion on Lake Geneva. The dashing 23-year-old poet Percy Shelley and his 18-year-old companion, Mary, who had already taken to calling herself "Mrs. Shelley," traveled to the lake to spend the summer with the poet Lord Byron.

In a world-first, scientists have genetically engineered ants to lack their sense of smell, affecting the animals' ability to communicate. Scientists used the controversial CRISPR technology to disrupt the ants' ability to communicate, forage or compete to be a queen, as their antennae and brain circuits failed to fully develop. While the system has not yet been tested in humans, the researchers believe that it could one day be used to treat conditions that affect social communication, including schizophrenia and depression. In a world-first, scientists have genetically engineered ants to lack their sense of smell, affecting the animals' ability to communicate Crispr technology precisely changes small parts of genetic code. Unlike other gene-silencing tools, the Crispr system targets the genome's source material and permanently turns off genes at the DNA level.

Genetic engineering is tricky business. Its potential for good, for bad, and for unintended consequences is almost unlimited. How do you realize the good while avoiding the bad? In 2012 a research team led by Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier published a landmark paper that gave scientists a gene-editing tool known as CRISPR-Cas9 that makes it much easier to turn genetic engineering's potential into reality. On December 29, 2016, a team led by Benjamin Rauch and Joseph Bondy-Denomy at UC San Francisco published a paper in the journal Cell that may well turn out to equally groundbreaking.

Almost exactly a year ago, I attended the International Summit of Human Gene Editing at the National Academy of Sciences. It was organized in part by Jennifer Doudna, arguably one of the inventors of Crispr-Cas9. It's a new biotech tool--cheap, easy to use, and reliable--that allows thousands of scientists around the world to modify genes in plants, model organisms, and living human cells. One of the biggest ticket items on the agenda was a debate on editing the germline, the heritable code entailed in sperm and ovum that gets passed on to future generations. One chief concern is that Crispr-Cas9 will open up new terrain for a "market-based eugenics"--genome editing will be combined with in vitro fertilization techniques. There's certainly motivation to explore this landscape: Many mothers with foreknowledge of a newborn's condition of Down's syndrome, for example, choose to abort; if they had the foreknowledge that their child would have autism, or major depression, and if they had the ability to modify genetic markers for intelligence, or psychiatric risk traits, they might be tempted to take advantage of it.

One of the persistent concerns about Indian innovation is whether, with our relatively poor position in R & D, we are falling behind the curve. It has definitely been true in the information technology sector: Indian companies that have done well have done so, not based on technological breakthroughs but on offering low-cost engineering services. There's nothing wrong with cost arbitrage, of course, and several globally competitive Indian companies have made fortunes for thousands of employees. But if you look at the landscape of Indian'unicorns', there is little that is not a replication of already-proven business models. That is, business innovation, rather than technological innovation. Examples like Zomato, Flipkart, and OlaCabs come to mind.