For nearly two decades, researcher Jesse Owens and his team at the University of Hawaiʻi at M膩noa (JABSOM) have been pursuing a bold vision: harnessing the natural ability of DNA to move itself to treat genetic disease. Supported by a $2 million grant, their latest breakthrough, published in , marks a major step forward in precision gene therapy.

In nature, transposons, sometimes called “selfish DNA,” can jump around the genome, a phenomenon first discovered in corn by Nobel laureate Barbara McClintock. Owens鈥� team repurposed this mechanism to deliver healthy genes into cells, replacing faulty ones.

“What we鈥檝e done in our lab is take this natural jumping mechanism and use it to deliver healthy genes into the genome, essentially replacing a faulty one with a working copy,” Owens said.

Early transposon systems were limited by random insertion, but Owens鈥� lab engineered a way to target “safe harbor” regions of DNA, avoiding cancer-related genes. Their results found an average of 1.2 successful insertions per cell, a more than thousandfold improvement over previous efforts.

“That means nearly every cell we worked with received the new gene. It鈥檚 a huge jump,” Owens said.

With National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding, the team plans to apply the technology to CAR T-cell immunotherapy, potentially improving cancer treatments.

“This research began here in Hawaiʻi, and it鈥檚 now on the brink of something that could impact lives worldwide,” Owens reflected. “It鈥檚 exciting to see how far we鈥檝e come and how much farther we can go.”

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An associate professor and graduate student from the University of Hawaiʻi at M膩noa鈥檚 (CTAHR) won the 2019 Best Paper award for their scientific paper on the intestinal health of chickens. The award was given by the Journal of Animal Science and Biotechnology and is also featured as one of the journal鈥檚 “.”

Rajesh Jha and graduate student Sudhir Yadav of the co-authored “.”

The paper reviews alternatives to antibiotics, such as probiotics, prebiotics and others “that mimic the functions of antibiotics as growth promoters and modulate gut microbiota for their beneficial roles,” such as improving “nutrient digestion, absorption, metabolism and overall health and growth performance of poultry.”

The poultry industry has long used the routine administration of antibiotics “to promote the growth of poultry and manage gut microbiota,” the authors explain. However, a growing understanding of the environmental and human-health consequences of antibiotics overuse in livestock production has led to banning or regulating them as feed additives.

The authors hope to help producers and regulatory agencies “to develop new dietary and managerial strategies that will ultimately lead to enhanced feed utilization and improved growth performance of poultry.”

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