Days before the 2020 Nobel Prize for Chemistry was awarded to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna for their discovery of the gene editing technique CRISPR, Aayah Nounu PhD, a research associate at ICEP, participated in a conference exploring important applications of the technology. 

The conference, led by the Wellcome Genome Campus UK, highlighted the use of CRISPR Cas technology to identify which proteins are required to observe a drug effect. By deleting each protein in turn and treating cells with the drug, you can immediately see which protein is targeted by the drug.

A second application facilitates personalised medicine. By introducing multiple variants into a gene involved in drug metabolism, the variants most affecting drug metabolism can be identified. This might allow clinicians to avoid prescribing Warfarin to patients with CYP2C9 variants, for example, since this would result in too much blood thinning. 

Conference participants also discussed how CRISPR Cas technology can be used in lineage tracing. The technique involves inserting a barcode into embryonic stem cells. As cells differentiate, the barcode undergoes mutations. Based on the resultant barcode mutations, one can trace the lineage of the cell. 

A fourth use of the technology allows protein expression to be monitored. By editing fluorescence into a gene, it is possible to see where in a cell a protein is expressed. 

CRISPR Cas technology is also used to identify synthetic lethality between paralog pairs in cancer cell lines. Pairs of genes can have similar functions. If one is deleted in cancer, the other can be targeted using drugs to kill the cells. To identify these pairs of genes, double CRISPR cas9 knockouts are carried out to knockout two genes at the same time.