Nature Communications Publishes ECUST the new achievements of developing a thermally stable Type I-B CRISPR-Cas system 

Recently, Professor Zhang Lixin from the State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering, School of Bioengineering, East China University of Science and Technology and researcher Wang Weishan from the Institute of Microbiology, China Academy of Sciences jointly published a research paper entitled “A thermostable type I-B CRISPR-Cas system for orthogonal andmultiplexed genetic engineering” in Nature Communications. In this study, a TypeI-B CRISPR-Cas system with high thermal stability was developed, which provided a brand-new tool for genetic engineering and transcription regulation of thermobacteria.

The article is co-first authored by Doctoral candidate Yang Zhiheng from School of Bioengineering, ECUST, Doctor Li Zilong and Doctoral candidate Li Bixiao from Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and is co-corresponding authored by Wang Weishan, a researcher at Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Professor Zhang Lixin, director of the National Heavy Laboratory of our school, with the State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering, ECUST as the first academic affiliation. The research was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the “Double First-class” Key Project- Intelligent Bio-manufacturing - of ECUST in 2023.