New CRISPR-based technology to record cellular processes

In living cells, the genetic code is constantly being translated into complex proteins. The transcriptional history of cells tells stories about pathogen infections, the exposure to toxins or other forms of stress - information that is valuable to diagnostics. Researchers from the Biological Engineering Lab of Randall Platt now developed a technology called Record-seq, which writes transcriptional events into DNA where they can be permanently stored and later accessed to by sequencing.