Dennis France, Horizon Discovery to speak at GTCbio's CRISPR & Genome Engineering Conference
Dennis France, Vice President of Research & Development, Horizon Discovery will speak on "Functional Genomics using CRISPR-Cas9 for the Identification & Validation of Novel Oncology Targets" at GTCbio's CRISPR & Genome Engineering Conference.
- (1888PressRelease) March 29, 2016 - In Dr. France's presentation, "Functional Genomics using CRISPR-Cas9 for the Identification & Validation of Novel Oncology Targets", he states:
RNA interference possesses disadvantages for precise and accurate functional genomics, including incomplete knockdown and off-target effects, especially when deployed in the highly-efficient pooled drop-out screen format. These issues are particularly acute in the search for synthetic lethal targets to exploit vulnerabilities exposed by cancer-driving mutations in tumor suppressors and undruggable oncogenes. A facile method enabling complete knockdown should allow the identification of targets previously unreachable to functional genomic screening and with the discovery of the RNA-guided Cas9 nuclease, such a technology is now within our grasp. Following Feng Zhang and others, we have deployed a pooled lentiviral CRISPR-Cas9 knock-out screening approach employing large-scale complex libraries and data deconvolution via next generation sequencing.
Using a whole genome sgRNA library, we have performed small molecule resistance screens and identified both previously published and novel hits. The availability of the haploid cell lines eHap/Hap1 enables exceptionally efficient target validation. We have created a sgRNA library based on a subset of the druggable genome to perform unbiased large-scale functional screens across cell line panels to identify synthetic lethal interactions with common cancer genotypes. The phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K) pathway, and in particular the catalytic subunit PIK3CA, is frequently mutated in various cancer types. Using isogenic cell lines sensitivity screens were conducted to identify targets that show selective lethality with the activating PIK3CA E545K mutation found in a colon carcinoma cell line. Using this approach, we identified several novel hits, as well as PI3K-pathway associated genes that validate the application of CRISPR-Cas9 technology to identify cancer-specific vulnerabilities.
We invite you to attend the CRISPR & Genome Engineering Conference, which will take place May 26-27, 2016 in Boston, MA to listen to Dr. France's talk and many other leaders in the field!
This conference is part of the Genomics & Big Data Summit and features the following four tracks:
6th Next Generation Sequencing
3rd Metabolomics-Advances & Applications in Human Disease
CRISPR & Genome Engineering
Big Data Bioinformatics
For more information, please visit www.gtcbio.com/CRISPR or contact us using the information below.
GTCbio
635 W. Foothill Blvd
Monrovia, CA 91016
www.gtcbio.com/
Email: infogtcbio ( @ ) gtcbio dot com
Phone: (626) 256-6405
Fax: (626) 466-4433
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