team of researchers at the University of Central Florida is using breakthrough gene–editing technology to develop a new screening tool for Parkinson’s disease. The technology allows scientists in the lab to “light up” and then monitor a brain protein called alpha–synuclein that has been associated with Parkinson’s.

The team published its findings in the Scientific Reports journal. The researchers believe their work is a crucial step toward identifying new drug therapies for Parkinson’s disease.

Adams is partnering with doctoral student Sambuddha Basu, associate professor and neurosciences researcher, Associate Professor Yoon–Seong Kim, and scientist Subhrangshu Guhathakurta to study Parkinson’s disease.

They are using CRISPR Cas9 (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) gene–editing technology. The system is one of research’s fastest growing biomedical techniques that allows scientists to make specific changes in the DNA of plants and animals while not killing cells. The system is becoming instrumental in studying genetically based treatments for diseases including cancer and Parkinson’s.

“It’s the most powerful and widely used gene–editing technique in use because it allows us to change the DNA in living cells,” said Kim, who is also a medical doctor. “The innovation of this method is that it enables us to monitor this gene in real–time without killing the cell. Without the CRISPR Cas–9 method, you would have to extract all the proteins from the cell to measure them, which kills the cell.”

Using the CRISPR technique, the Burnett team edited the alpha–synuclein gene and inserted a luminescent tag made from proteins that causes fireflies to light up. Every time the cell creates the alpha–synuclein protein, the tag gives off a light. That reaction “makes it much easier to measure,” Adams said. “More light means an increased level of alpha–synuclein, which would be considered a diseased state.”

The team found that measuring light was a reliable method to measure alpha–synuclein production.

“If we take one of these modified cells and treat it with a particular drug, if it doesn’t produce light anymore, then this means the drug is a potential treatment for this disease,” Basu said.

With the engineered cells, researchers can screen new and existing drugs to see how they regulate alpha–synuclein level in patients.

“With an easy–to–measure reporter like light production, this will allow us to do high throughput screening, where you can test a large panel of drugs at once,” Guhathakurta said.

With the new technology, the scientists hope to identifying ways to reduce alpha–synuclein production that can possibly prevent Parkinson’s or its progression in patients diagnosed with the disease.