Magnetic sorting and genomic technique for drug discovery

The project, which also involved electrical engineers, is aimed at searching the human genome for genes, and the associated protein products, that can be targeted by drugs to treat a variety of illnesses. This is normally a very lengthy task, but research leaders Shana Kelley and Jason Moffat of the University of Toronto reasoned that combining the techniques they were working on – respectively, a magnetic sorting technique and gene-editing using CRISPR – might speed the process up. As they report in a paper in Nature Biomedical Engineering, their hunch was correct.

Both researchers were working on a large multi-centre project called Medicine by Design, with Kelley, a pharmacist, leading a team that was building microfluidic devices which use tiny magnets incorporated into cells to sort large mixed populations of cells. Moffat, a cellular and biomedical research specialist, was using CRISPR, a powerful technique for identifying and manipulating specific genes in cells, to study how the body's immune system is triggered to attack certain cells but not others. A conversation in a corridor led researchers to combine their research strands, resulting in what Kelley calls "an engine for the discovery of new therapeutic targets in cells."