Towards genomic surgery with zinc finger recombinases

Many genetic diseases could be treated if we had tools for precise alteration of the DNA molecules within cells. This project aims to develop a family of synthetic enzymes called zinc finger recombinases (ZFRs), which can recognize two specific sequences in a cell’s DNA, cut the DNA strands, and rejoin the cut ends in a new arrangement, allowing a “bad” gene to be cut out, or a “good” gene to be inserted. We plan to create ZFRs that can cut out the piece of DNA encoding HIV from the human cellular DNA.