PhD Oral Defence: Refinement of CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing efficiency and its application to the study of porcine early embryo development
PhD Oral Defence of Karina Gutierrez, Animal Science
Pigs are considered valuable biomedical models due to their anatomical, physiological, metabolic and genetic similarities with humans. Genome manipulation is often required to create new experimental animal models and to study gene functions. New techniques have been developed to facilitate the specific manipulation of the genome in eukaryotes. The most recent one is based on the bacterial CRISPR/Cas9 system. The injection of the CRISPR/Cas9 editing system has proved effective in creating animals with targeted modifications in the genome in one single generation. The goals of my research project were to refine the CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing efficiency in porcine embryos and study the effects of manipulating specific genes during early embryo development.
