#197 CRISPR Quality Control with Kiana Aran

We have two special announcements! Very soon we will be celebrating a decade of DNA Today! That’s right, we released our first episode on September 1st, 2012. It also coincides with our 200th episode. We want to mark these milestones with you on the show. So send in your favorite episode. You can write it, or better yet, record a voice memo sharing your favorite episode and why you enjoy listening to the show. After all, our podcast would not be possible without you loyal listeners. That’s why we want to celebrate together! Send in your voice memo or written message about your fav episode of DNA Today to [email protected]. Deadline is August 27th. Thank you to all you listeners for nominating us in the Podcast Awards, you did it! We have officially been nominated. It’s year number 6 being nominated and it might be our third time winning the Best Science and Medicine Podcast Award. BUT that’s only gong to happen if you check your email inbox for an email from The Podcast Awards with the subject line, “Podcast Awards Final Slate Voting”'. If you got this email you are one of the few that were selected to be a voter. It’s imperative that you vote! There is a hyperlink to click to get to the voting page. You do have to quickly log back in. Once you do, select DNA Today in the “Science and Medicine category”, select your other fav podcasts and then Hit the “Save Nominations” button. It’s that easy. You have until September 10th to do this, but please do it now if you got the email so you don’t forget! Can’t thank you all enough! Special shoutout to the following listeners for sharing after they nominated us… Heather, Dan, Janelle, Steven, Doug, Lynn, Taila, Lorraine, Katherine, Barbara, Jerry, Catherine, Kim, Ashlyn, Pricilla, Jane, Rob, Hari, Vishnu, Leticia, Meli, Wright, Mahfuz, Anne, Laura, Molly, Hibat, Rachael, Carol, Hal, Romer, Joanne Joining us this week is Dr. Kiana Aran, Associate Professor of Medical Diagnostics and Therapeutics and head of the Aran Lab at Keck Graduate Institute (KGI) where she works to develop CRISPR Quality Control standards. In addition to her important work at KGI, Dr. Aran is also the Chief Scientific Officer of Cardea Bio, is a visiting Assistant Professor at UC Berkeley, and serves as a Consultant of Drug Delivery and Medical Diagnostics for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She received her undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from the City University of New York in 2007 and her Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering at the Rutgers University in 2012. She then continued her postdoctoral studies in bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley and was a recipient of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) postdoctoral training fellowship at the Buck Institute for Aging Research in 2015. Her efforts have been recently recognized by many awards in science and STEM including the Clinical OMICs 10 under 40 Award and the Athena Pinnacle Award. Dr. Aran was also the recipient of the NSF Career Award to develop the next generation of electronic sensors, and Nature's Scientific Achievment Award in 2021. On This Episode We Discuss: What is CRISPR and how does it work? How CRISPR is different from other genetic editing technologies Current standards for therapeutic applications using CRISPR Potential side effects of CRISPR treatments The risk for off target CRISPR’d edits (edits in other genes that were not intended) The CRISPR Quality Control standards that Dr. Aran’s lab is developing CRISPR-ChipTM Applications of CRISPR-Cas systems beyond genome editing Predicting when CRISPR treatments will be clinically available outside of studies CRISPR babies Dr. Aran’s most recent NIH grant and future work Learn more about Dr. Aran’s research by visiting aranlab.org and read about her 1.63 million dollar NIH grant to help set Quality Control Standards for CRISPR Therapies! You can also read the paper that she co-authored in The CRISPR Journal about applications of CRISPR-Cas systems beyond genome editing in 2021. Follow Dr. Aran on Twitter and LinkedIn, and follow the Aran lab on Instagram! Stay tuned for the next new episode of DNA Today on August 19th, 2022 where we’ll be joined by Sam Sternberg, co-author of A Crack in Creation (who he wrote with Nobel Prize winner, Jennifer Doudna), to continue our discussion about CRISPR! New episodes are released on Fridays. In the meantime, you can binge over 195 other episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, streaming on the website, or any other podcast player by searching, “DNA Today”. Episodes since 2021 are also recorded with video which you can watch on our YouTube channel. DNA Today is hosted and produced by Kira Dineen. Our social media lead is Corinne Merlino. Our video lead is Amanda Andreoli. See what else we are up to on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and our website, DNApodcast.com. Questions/inquiries can be sent to [email protected]. PerkinElmer Genomics is a global leader in genetic testing focusing on rare diseases, inherited disorders, newborn screening, and hereditary cancer. Testing services support the full continuum of care from preconception and prenatal to neonatal, pediatric, and adult. Testing options include sequencing for targeted genes, multiple genes, the whole exome or genome, and copy number variations. Using a simple saliva or blood sample, PerkinElmer Genomics answers complex genetic questions that can proactively inform patient care and end the diagnostic odyssey for families. Learn more at PerkinElmerGenomics.com. (SPONSORED)