Harvard scientists create gene-editing tool that could rival CRISPR - Engadget

Researchers from the Harvard's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering have created a new gene-editing tool that can enable scientists to perform millions of genetic experiments simultaneously.

That means they can be used for genome editing without damaging the native DNA, and they can be used to perform multiple experiments in one big mixture.

"RLR enabled us to do something that's impossible to do with CRISPR: we randomly chopped up a bacterial genome, turned those genetic fragments into single-stranded DNA in situ, and used them to screen millions of sequences simultaneously

RLR is a simpler, more flexible gene editing tool that can be used for highly multiplexed experiments, which eliminates the toxicity often observed with CRISPR and improves researchers’ ability to explore mutations at the genome level..

There's still work to be done before RLR can be widely used, including improving and standardizing its editing rate