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Horizon Discovery Group plc (LSE:HZD) (Horizon), a leading provider of research tools to support translational genomics and the development of personalized medicines, today announced the launch of gUIDEbook™, developed in collaboration with Desktop Genetics.

gUIDEbook bioinformatics software has been designed to support researchers working with CRISPR genome editing.

The software is free of charge to use and can be accessed via the Horizon website Successful CRISPR genome editing relies on the quality of the gRNA design, determined by bioinformatic software. The gUIDEbook software has been developed to provide the most complete solution available for designing CRISPR genome editing experiments. The platform enables researchers to generate knock-outs, knock-ins, mutations or tags through powerful laboratory-validated DNA search algorithms behind a simple and intuitive user interface.

Utilizing state-of-the-art scoring functions, gUIDEbook allows an entire gene to be quickly reviewed for the best guide or guides for both wild-type and Cas9 ‘nickase’ experiments. The current version of gUIDEbook supports human and mouse genomes with additional genomes to be added later, and offers two levels of use depending on experimental requirements and the level of user experience.

Once researchers have selected the best guides for an experiment, they can then easily order their chosen guides from Horizon.

Further functionality is in development, such as donor design for knockin experiments, with updates expected to be released later in the year.

Eric Rhodes, CTO and SVP R&D, Horizon Discovery, said: "Many tools have emerged to enable CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing design, but we have brought all the best features of these programs together in one package.  We've collaborated with Desktop Genetics to provide a simple user interface for the novice user as well as a fully enabled set of features for more advanced users."

Riley Doyle, CEO Desktop Genetics, commented: "Our primary design goal with gUIDEbook was to make CRISPR genome editing as simple as possible yet still keep the user in control. gUIDEbook automatically applies current best practices so you can design guide RNAs in seconds and lets advanced users take direct control for the most stringent applications."

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