Shen et al (Nature Methods, 2017) explore and identify synthetic interactions among 73 cancer-associated genes. To perform their loss of function screen they combined CAS9-expressing cell lines with a sgRNA library of high titer lentiviral particles. Most of these gene interactions were subsequently validated by drug treatment. [Read more…]
Stem cell and iPSC research: quality and innovative products to boost your project
Since the discovery of reprogramming factors in 2006 and the boom of CRISPR gene editing strategies, iPSC cell lines have emerged as new cellular models. The development of 3D culture technologies has also contributed to the generation of induced Pluripotent Stem Cell (iPSC) derived cells, with unique applications from patient-specific drug responses testing, to regenerative medicine.
I would like to introduce in this post a selection of reagents in this domain, a combination of both routine and innovative quality reagents, that I consider as bringing something extra to your stem cell research project.
Two top ways to success with knock-out
In March 2016, Mark J Osborn et al published in Molecular Therapy a major article for genome editing (doi:10.1038/mt.2015.197), about knock-out of CD3 in human T-cells. The goal is to improve T-cell-based immunotherapies to fight tumours using engineered allogenic T-cells from healthy donors. It is a very good example of how CRISPR-CAS9 can help medecine. And even if you are not very comfortable with CAR T-cells and the treatments of malignancies, I would recommend you read it and especially take a look at figure 2. Indeed, dear friends of genome editing, the authors made a clear and fair comparison of several KO strategies, covering all the main options. Thus, it is not only a major step for anti-tumour treatments but it is also an excellent overview that reveals the best approaches. So, before reading this post any further, you might like to read the article mentioned above. [Read more…]
Optimized DNA delivery in Stem Cells
The introduction of transgenes into stem cells has shown to be a valuable experimental technique for studying stem cell biology. Transfecting stem cells without inhibiting cell viability and cell growth has shown to be difficult. DNA-In® Stem Transfection Reagent offers a simple, robust and reproducible method for delivering DNA into a wide range of stem cells, including neural stem cells. Formulated and optimized specifically for embryonic and adult stem cells, DNA-In® Stem is a new-generation transfection reagent that enables high efficiency transfection while maintaining maximum cell viability and cell growth.
In this post, I invite you to discover the benefits of using DNA-In® Stem Transfection Reagent vs. other reagents. A lot of pictures and graphs rather than long descriptions! Last but not least, DNA-In® Stem Transfection Reagent is less expensive compared to Lipofectamine reagents… [Read more…]
CRISPR/Cas9 vector delivery maximized with DNA-In CRISPR
CRISPR-Cas9 is a popular method that brings researchers endless experimental strategies to create their own research-based cellular models. In this post we’ll review a new transfection reagent especially engineered to maximize Cas9 vectors deliveries inside cells with low cellular toxicity.
CRISPR genome editing: which cell line to choose?
Many labs have adopted the CRISPR genome editing technology to make knock-out and knock-in cell lines.
This technology produces first a targeted break in genomic DNA, which can then be exploited to produce cell lines with genes knocked out or where a donor vector has been used to introduce new genetic elements (point mutants, fluorescent tags, antibiotic resistance cassettes, etc.). Essentially any desired modification to the cells genome can be made. In setting up these genome editing projects there are many choices to be made including vector for the Cas9 protein and for the sgRNAs. Perhaps the most difficult choice, however, can be which cell line to use. Even the most affordable stable genome editing cell line development services can come with a significant cost, so choosing the right cell line at the beginning is crucial. Here we explain some of the choices researchers have in setting up their CRISPR genome editing projects and give our advice for cell line selection.
CRISPR-Cas or TALEN genome editing – which one to choose?
CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats)-Cas (CRISPR-associated) and Transcription Activator-Like Effector Nuclease (TALEN) are endonuclease based technologies aimed at developing targeted genome editing technologies.
CRISPR and TALEN provide Scientists with unique discovery tools for pathophysiology or genotype-phenotype studies by creating cellular models with gene knock-out, knock-in or tagging, promoter swapping, nucleotide substitution, protein truncation, reading frame disruption, modification of regulation by miRNA, genetic defect corrections…But, which one is the best for your application?
"CRISPR-Cas9 Specificity: Taming Off-target Mutagenesis" Technical bulletin
The CRISPR (Clustered, Regularly Interspaced, Short Palindromic Repeats)-Cas (CRISPR-associated) (CRISPR-Cas) system has become trendy as it is suitable for numerous applications such as gene knockouts, genome-engineering, to name but a few. In a recent Technical Bulletin, Ed Davis describes the mechanism of CRISPR-Cas for genome editing and how the recent experimental improvements improve CRISPR-Cas9 specificity while reducing off-target effects.