Welker Lab

Our latest publication is out now

The study of Éva Varga et al. investigates the application of new Cas12a variants in prime editing. The work was published in the journal Genome Biology.

2026. 08. 28.

Our latest publication is out now

The study of Zsuzsanna Biczóket al. aims to increase the efficiency of prime editing. The work was published in the journal Nucleic Acids Research.

2026. 04. 21.

ProPE PLANNER IS NOW AVAILABLE

The ProPE Planner tool, which enables the design of eng- and tpg-RNA pairs, is now available and ready to use.

2025. 10. 10.

Our latest publication is out now

The study of Sarah Laura Krausz et al. aims to increase the efficiency of prime editing. The work was published in the journal Nature Catalysis.

2025. 10. 10.

Our Research Topics

Since 2013, our research has focused on the nucleases of the CRISPR bacterial "immune system." We are particularly engaged in developing gene-editing systems based on these nucleases, enhancing their efficiency, optimizing their performance, and understanding their mechanisms. Specifically:

We are investigating the off-target activity of the SpCas9 nuclease (Nat Commun, 2023), and creating a general off-target-free editing protocol.

We are developing SpCas9 nuclease variants with increased precision (
(Genome Biol, 2017;
Nat Commun, 2020;
Nat Commun, 2021;
Nat Commun, 2022)

We are exploring the motif and sequence preferences of SpCas9 nuclease and its variants (Nucleic Acids Res, 2021; Nucleic Acids Res, 2023)

We are working on understanding, optimizing, and improving prime editing (Nat Catal, 2025; Nucleic Acids Res, 2026; Genome Biol, 2026)

We are continuously developing Cas12a variants that are more efficient and have different PAM binding specificities compared to the wild-type protein (Nucleic Acids Res, 2018; Nucleic Acids Res, 2020; Genome Biol, 2026)

For all of this, we have developed several different, widely applicable reporter systems. Such is the BEAR and PEAR system suitable for testing the effectiveness of base and prime editors (Nat Commun, 2021; eLife, 2022), as well as the GFxFP reporter system for testing nuclease activity independent of genomic context (Biol Direct, 2016)

Our Team

Missing from the picture: Margit Dobrádi, Eszter Tóth, Péter Tóth, Luca Gál

News

Several media reported on Éva Varga's work

The findings of Éva Varga and her colleagues have been featured across several national professional and media platforms.

Qubit HVG HUN-REN
HUN-REN TTK

2026. 09. 03.

Preview Article

A recent article in Bioengineer provides a preview of the work by Éva Varga and her colleagues.

2026. 08. 28.

Annual Meeting of the Hungarian Biochemical Society

Luca Gál, Balázs Fehér, and Péter Tóth participated in the Annual Meeting of the Hungarian Biochemical Society and presented their poster.

2026. 08. 26-28.

Genome Engineering: CRISPR Frontiers conference

Luca Gál and Balázs Csoma participated in a conference hosted by the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (NY, USA) and presented their research on a poster.

2026. 08. 11-15.

Congratulations to our students

Congratulations to Péter Tóth on completing his MSc and his successful admission to the PhD program, and to Balázs Csoma on his admission to the MSc program!

2026. 07. 30.