QBEmax is a sequence-permuted and internally protected base editor.

Hu, Jiacheng; Guo, Mengyue; Gao, Qiang; Jia, He; He, Mingyang; Wang, Zhiwei; Guo, Lina; Liu, Guanwen et al. · Nat Biotechnol · 2025

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Cytosine base editors (CBEs) show promise for multiplex gene knockout applications, but impure edits, indels and off-targets still frequently occur. We describe here QBEmax, which exhibits high efficiency, low indel and off-targets and high product purity with up to 99.8% of edits comprised of C-to-T. Through molecular dynamic modeling, QBEmax presents as a compact and stable base editor that shields protected bases from undesired repair processes.