Thesis advisor: Katie Rapier / Through the years, people began to breed their dogs and cats with the intention for the pets to be useful in a certain skill. However, that has shifted to focus on their looks rather than their skills thanks to kennel clubs imposing standards on each breed. This has led irresponsible breeding practices to occur which in turn caused breeds to evolve negatively as breeds began to suffer from preventable genetic disorders and negative physical changes. Genetically manipulating soon shifted from pets to humans with PGD/IVF and CRISPR-Cas9. At first, there was a focus to use these methods to help cure and prevent genetic disorders. That has since shifted to people wanting to create the perfect child. In this thesis I will argue that designer breeds help lead the way to designer babies, and that any genetic manipulation to embryos should only be done if a medical reason is present. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Philosophy.

Gene editing with the CRISPR/Cas9 system is one of the options that sets a new trend in the development of gene therapy. The most commonly used delivery of DNA into the cells are via viruses. Nevertheless, they are often unable to take CRISPR/Cas9 system, which can be bigger than several kb. Nanoparticles (NPs), as non-viral transporters, seem to be a good alternative delivery system. For this work magnetic Fe3O4 NPs (MNPs) were selected, because of their excellent properties such as multifunctionality, biocompatibility, easy degradation and simple synthesis. The aim of this work was to synthesise MNPs and a complex of MNPs coated with PEI/CRISPR-Cas9 plasmid and to characterize them by physicochemical methods. The created complex MNPs/PEI/CRISPR-Cas9 was defined by exact parameters that are suitable for possible cell uptake. The hypothesis of stabilization of the MNPs/CRISPR-Cas9 plasmid complex by polyethylenimine (PEI), which can also protect plasmid DNA against restriction endonucleases, was verified. Next a stable modified cell line HEK293-TLR3, designed to evaluate the efficacy of double strand break (DSB) repair by nonhomologous end joining (NHEJ) or homologous recombination (HR) was, transfected with the synthesised MNPs/PEI/CRISPR-Cas9 complex. The results indicate a 25% transfection...

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most prevalent neurodegenerative disease, featuring motor signs such as tremors, bradykinesia, and impaired gait that are often preceded by nonmotor symptoms such as anxiety/depression and olfactory dysfunction. Interestingly, significant olfactory loss was found to be manifested in the majority of PD patients and may precede motor symptoms by years, and thus can be used for the risk assessment of developing PD in asymptomatic individuals. The main pathological feature of PD is the progressive and irreversible loss of dopaminergic (DA) neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta of the midbrain. Although the detailed etiology of PD remains unclear, most PD cases were found to be sporadic and can be associated with environmental factors. Only 5–10% of patients result from familial PD. With considerable effort in the past two decades, a number of genes associated with familial PD have been identified and interestingly, many of these genes are involved in regulating and maintaining mitochondrial function. The presenilin-associated rhomboid-like (PARL) gene was found to contribute to mitochondrial morphology and function and was linked to familial Parkinson’s disease (PD). The PARL gene product is a mitochondrial intramembrane cleaving protease that acts on a number of mitochondrial proteins involved in mitochondrial morphology, apoptosis, and mitophagy. To date, functional and genetic studies of PARL have been mainly performed in mammals. However, little is known about PARL function and its role in dopaminergic (DA) neuron development in vertebrates. The zebrafish genome comprises two PARL paralogs: parla and parlb. Here, we show novel information concerning the role of PARL in zebrafish by establishing a loss-of-function mutation in parla and parlb via CRISPR/Cas9- mediated mutagenesis. We examined DA neuron numbers in the adult brain and expression of genes associated with DA neuron function in larvae and adults. We show that loss of parla function, as well as loss of both parla and parlb function result in loss of DA neurons in the olfactory bulb and telencephalon of adult zebrafish brain. Changes in the levels of tyrosine hydroxylase transcripts supported this neuronal loss. Expression of fis1, a gene involved in mitochondrial fission, was increased in parla mutants and in fish with loss of parla and parlb function. Furthermore, we showed that loss of parla and/or parlb function translates into altered locomotion parameters and that loss of parla but not parlb function results in impaired olfaction. Finally, increased susceptibility to neurotoxin exposure was identified in mutants with loss of both parla and parlb function but not with loss of parla or parlb function. These results suggest an evident role for parla in the development and/or maintenance of DA neuron function in zebrafish and confirm the existence of redundant and non-redundant functions for the two paralogs, parla and parlb.

>Magister Scientiae - MSc / Saccharomyces cerevisiae is an important host in industrial biotechnology. This yeast is the host of choice for the first and second-generation biofuels for ethanol production. Genome modification in S. cerevisiae has been extremely successful largely due to this yeast’s highly efficient homology-directed DNA repair machinery. The advent of CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) genome editing technology has made multi-gene editing in yeast more accessible. In this study, we aimed at targeting the Cas9 to multiple genomic positions for integrating multiple genes at different sites. We have developed two CRISPR-Cas9 systems, based on published one- and two-plasmid systems, for application in S. cerevisiae strains. In this study, these CRISPR-Cas9 systems were used to transform fungal heterologous genes into yeast using the electroporation transformation method.

Permanent repair of the F9 gene is a significant goal to cure Hemophilia B disease. Advanced gene therapy using CRISPR/Cas9 system can increase circulation level of Factor IX proteins to a significant level without the need of demanding infusions of FIX concentrates. Induced pluripotent stem cells represent an ideal cell for gene therapy because patient-derived cells could be reprogrammed into iPSCs, genetically modified, selected, expanded and then induced to differentiate into fully functional hepatocytes in vitro. This study covered a portion of a 5-year project which ultimately aims at establishing therapeutic results in transgenic Hemophilia B mice by injecting genetically corrected iPSC-derived hepatocytes into the liver. The purpose of this thesis is to summarize what has been completed up to now: generation of the proper model of Hemophilia B human iPSCs using CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing and differentiation of healthy and disease specific iPSCs into hepatocytes which will allow disease modelling to look for cell function, viability, homogeneity and drug screening. Further research will be done to effectively knock-in the F9 allele into liver safe harbor site of disease specific iPSCs, which will express FIX at a significant level to show therapeutic effects.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(医科学) / 甲第21689号 / 医科博第93号 / 新制||医||1036(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院医学研究科医科学専攻 / (主査)教授 斎藤 通紀, 教授 中川 一路, 教授 竹内 理 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Medical Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

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NK cell based anti-tumour therapies demonstrate high efficacy in targeting hematological malignancies, however, treatments for advanced solid tumours face challenges. The immunosuppressive environment produced by tumours prevents NK cells from maintaining cytotoxic activity and reducing tumour burden. Enhancing NK cell activation is essential to improve their function against solid tumours. Genetic manipulation of primary NK cells with viral and non-viral methods has seen a drastic improvement in recent years. Lentiviral vectors are being used to generate CAR-NK cells ex vivo, while refinement of electroporation protocols has allowed for the generation of stable gene knockouts in primary NK cells. To establish and validate the generation of a stable knockout in primary human NK cells we focused on targeting the NCAM-1 (CD56) surface adhesion molecule. The high surface expression of CD56 in NK cells makes it a suitable target to establish the knockout protocol. Furthermore, despite its levels of expression being correlated to different functional phenotypes, the role of CD56 in NK cell function is not understood. Here we have shown that current lentiviral transduction protocols are not viable methods to deliver the sgRNA/Cas9 system into primary NK cells. However, we found that nucleofection of the sgRNA/Cas9 complex into NK cells is an efficient method to generate gene knockouts. Using newly generated CD56KO NK cells we have shown that the expression of CD56 has no effect on NK cell cytotoxicity, cytokine production, proliferation, and in vivo tissue trafficking. In parallel, we have also identified an intracellular pathway that is active in the tumour microenvironment and could inhibit NK cell function. Recent studies on the intracellular signaling of the E3 ubiquitin-protein ligase Cbl-b have highlighted its role in inhibiting NK cell tumour lytic and anti-metastatic activity. Immunosuppressive factors produced by tumours activate the Cbl-b pathway, leading to the targeted degradation of signaling proteins required for NK cell activation. We have shown that Cbl-b is upregulated in ex vivo expanded NK cells cultured with GAS6 or ovarian cancer ascites. Therefore, the generation of human primary Cbl-bKO NK cells could be a beneficial asset to enhance NK cell cancer immunotherapy. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

Glucosyltransferases catalyze the transfer of glucose molecules from an active donor to acceptor molecules and are involved in many plant processes. SIP68, a tobacco glucosyltransferase protein, is a SABP2-interacting protein. It was identified in a yeast two-hybrid screen using SABP2 as bait and tobacco proteins as prey. SABP2, converts methyl salicylate to salicylic acid (SA) as a part of the signal transduction pathways in SA-mediated defense signaling. Subcellular localization is a crucial aspect of protein functional analysis to assess its biological function. The recombinant SIP68 tagged with eGFP was expressed transiently in Nicotiana benthamiana and observed under confocal microscopy. Fluorescent signals were observed in the epidermal cells. Subcellular fractionation of the tobacco leaves transiently expressing SIP68-+eGFP confirmed that SIP68 is localized in the cytosol. To study the role of SIP68 in plant stress signaling, transgenic lines with altered SIP68 expression were generated using RNAi and CRISPR Cas9 and analyzed.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(農学) / 甲第22503号 / 農博第2407号 / 新制||農||1077(附属図書館) / 学位論文||R2||N5283(農学部図書室) / 京都大学大学院農学研究科応用生物科学専攻 / (主査)教授 佐藤 健司, 教授 澤山 茂樹, 准教授 豊原 治彦 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Agricultural Science / Kyoto University / DFAM