Authors

K Enesa¹; 
¹ Abcam, UK

Discussion

The recent advancement in gene-editing technologies and the emergence of CRISPR-Cas9 has revolutionized our understanding of the genetic basis of disease through better modelling and drug target discovery, ultimately opening new doors for the development of gene-targeted therapies. CRISPR-Cas9 is widely used as a tool to understand gene function in the context of disease models.

Despite its massive impact, CRISPR-Cas9 is still a lengthy, cumbersome and tedious process, and requires further investigation towards its improvement by making it simple, fast and easy to use.

To address this, Abcam launched one of the largest portfolios of
physiologically relevant and highly validated edited cell lines.

We’ve first successfully established a high throughput cell-editing platform that enabled us to subsequently generate over 600 CRISPR Knock-out cell lines in less than three months. We then further expanded our capabilities by generating bespoke CRISPR-Cas9 engineered Knock-in cell lines overexpressing key target proteins and markers. These engineered cell lines will not only be pivotal towards establishing novel cell-based assays for potential drug candidates but will also serve as a focal point in eliminating the current issues of high cost, time, feasibility and reproducibility associated with the current approaches.