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Scientists at the Francis Crick Institute in London have found simple rules that could hugely improve the accuracy of CRISPR gene editing. Dr Paola Scaffidi, who led the study, said it was previously assumed that outcome of CRISPR editing was unpredictable and led to random insertions and deletions at the DNA target site. “Until now, editing genes with CRISPR has involved a lot of guesswork, frustration and trial and error”, Dr Scaffidi said. “The effects of CRISPR were thought to be unpredictable and seemingly random, but by analysing hundreds of edits we were shocked to find that there are actually simple, predictable patterns behind it all.“ The discovery is based on an analysis of the genetic letters – A, T, C and G...