Harrison Lab
Projects

Current Projects

The Harrison lab has a number of funded projects underway led by a dynamic team of post-docs, grad students and highly skilled research assistants.

Many of these projects are supported through funding from the CF Foundation through a long-term collaboration with Dr. Mitchell L. Drumm from Case Western Reserve University, and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Foundation. Additional support has been provided by CF Trust (UK) and Science Foundation Ireland.

The projects below include a number of collaborations within Cincinnati Children's and many other labs across the US and Europe.

Lab Projects (6)

CRISPR Base Editing G542X

CRISPR base editing for the second most common CF-causing variant, G542X in human cells using engineered Virus Like Particles (eVLPs) for delivery of base editors - this is an active collaboration with Dr. Martina Scallan at University College Cork in Ireland.

Read a recent publication related to this research

CRISPR Base Editing W1282X

We have a number of additional base editing projects, in particular focused on W1282X led by Joana Alves, and a long-term collaboration to further characterize this in more detail with Dr. Carlos Farinha and Dr. Immacolata Zollo at the University of Lisbon.

Read a recent publication related to this research

Project Collaborators

Carlos Farinha, PhD
Immacolata Zollo, PhD
CRISPR Prime Editing

CRISPR prime editing to correct small clusters of CF-causing variants using prime editing, this work has been advanced in collaboration with Dr. Emma Collins and Dr. Joss Murray, at University College Cork in Ireland.

Read a recent publication related to this research

Project Collaborators

Emma Collins, PhD
Joss Murray, PhD
CRISPR-Based Strategies For Whole Exon Repair

The lab has three CRISPR-based strategies for whole exon repair – this work is actively on-going and led by Cat Black, Deepika Wali, and Molly Duszynski in collaboration with Dr. Joss Murray and Dr. Emma Collins at University College Cork in Ireland.

Project Collaborators

Joss Murray, PhD
Emma Collins, PhD
CRISPR-Based strategies for correcting more than one exon at a time

Our team has been working for several years on the Super-Exon strategy, designed to correct more than one exon at a time. In 2023, we successfully integrated a Super-Exon spanning the last five exons of the CFTR gene and partially restored CFTR chloride channel activity in the W1282X mutant context (Mention et al., Mol Ther, 2023). We are continuing this knock-in strategy, based on CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing and the Homology-Independent Targeted Integration approach, in collaboration with our new French partner, Anne Bergougnoux.

We aim to correct the second part of the CFTR gene with a Super-Exon spanning 17 exons and various 3′UTR versions, in epithelial cell models, including airway epithelial cells from individuals with CF.

This strategy, applicable to both dividing and non-dividing cells, increases the efficiency of gene editing compared to Homology-Directed Repair and has the potential to correct more than 700 CF-causing variants in a single step.

Project Collaborators

Anne Bergougnoux, PhD
Improving methods for transfecting primary human cells with CF-causing variants

Internal collaborations with the Brewington Lab are underway to improve methods for transfecting primary human cells with CF-causing variants as a first step towards clinical translation.

Project Collaborators

John J. Brewington, MD
Publications
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