Background: The discovery and use of CRISPR/Cas9 technology have enabled researchers throughout the globe to continuously edit genomes for the benefit of science and medicine. Diabetes type I is one field of medicine where CRISPR/Cas9 has a strong potential for cell therapy development. The long-lasting paucity of healthy cells for clinical transplantation into diabetic patients has led to the search of new methods for producing β-cells from other human cell types. Embryonic stem cells are being studied worldwide as one most promising solution of this need. Aim: The aim of the study is to to check the feasibility of modulating human insulin transcription using CRISPR/Cas9-based synthetic transcription regulation factors. Results: A new approach for creating potential therapeutic donor cells with enhanced and suppressed insulin production based on one of the latest achievements of human genome editing was developed. Both synthetic transcription activator (VP64) and transcription repressor (KRAB) proteins were shown to function adequately well as a part of the whole CRISPR/Cas9-based system. We claim that our results have a lot to offer and can bring light to many studies where numerous labs are struggling on to treat this disease.

Individuals chronically exposed to low-level ionising radiation (IR) run the risk of harmful and long-term adverse health effects, including gene mutations and cancer development. The search for reliable biomarkers of IR exposure in human population is still of great interest, as they may have a great implementation potential for the surveillance of occupationally exposed individuals. In this context, and considering previous literature, this study aimed to identify mutations in the human interferon alpha-2b (hIFNα-2b) as a potential biomarker of occupational chronic low-dose IR exposure linking low-IR exposure to the effects on haematopoiesis and reduced immunity. The analysis was performed in the genomic DNA of 51 uranium miners and 38 controls from Kazakhstan, and in 21 medical radiology workers and 21 controls from Italy. hIFNα-2b gene mutations were analysed with the real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or Sanger sequencing. However, none of the investigated workers had the hIFNα-2b mutation. This finding highlights the need for further research to identify biomarkers for early detection of health effects associated with chronic low-dose IR exposure.