Toward tunable dynamic repression using CRISPRi

CRISPR interference (CRISPRi) is widely utilized for regulation of target gene expression by repressing transcription. Simple design rules for the single guide RNA (sgRNA) and multiplexity won this method immense popularity. However, quantitative control of the expression levels at varying degrees in a dynamic manner using CRISPRi has been regarded difficult. To deal with this limitation, Fontana et al. modulated the expression levels of the components of CRISPRi, the deactivated Cas9 (dCas9), and the sgRNAs, using various constitutive or inducible promoters (Fontana et al., Biotechnol. J. 2018, 13, 1800069). They found that the expression level of sgRNA is the key to controlling CRISPRi. Modulation of sgRNA expression levels enabled quantitative tuning of the CRISPRi-regulated gene expression level. This approach is expected to be easily applied to diverse applications owing to its simplicity compared to the conventional approaches that modified target sequence or changed the expression level of dCas9.110Ysciescopu

Business cycle and herding behavior in stock returns: theory and evidence

This study explains the role of economic uncertainty as a bridge between business cycles and investors’ herding behavior. Starting with a conventional stochastic differential equation representing the evolution of stock returns, we provide a simple theoretical model and empirically demonstrate it. Specifically, the growth rate of gross domestic product and the power law exponent are used as proxies for business cycles and herding behavior, respectively. We find stronger herding behavior during recessions than during booms. We attribute this to economic uncertainty, which leads to strong behavioral bias in the stock market. These findings are consistent with the predictions of the quantum model.</p

Artificial RNA Regulators Responsive to Flavonoids for Metabolic Engineering of Microbial Systems

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Development of hybrid input part using riboswitch and transcriptional repressor to invert and amplify signal

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Engineering of genetically encoded biosensors using synthetic parts

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Creating Artificial riboswitches through in vitro and in vivo selection for intracellular naringenin detection

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Artificial lactam riboswitch for high-throughput screening and selection

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