Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 24, 2026
A Universal Protocol for Large-scale gRNA Library Production from any DNA Source
Published on: December 6, 2017
Large-Scale Single Guide RNA Library Construction and Use for CRISPR-Cas9-Based Genetic Screens
Tim Wang1, Eric S Lander2, David M Sabatini1
1Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139; Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142; Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142; David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139;
Abstract:
The ability to systematically disrupt genes serves as a powerful tool for understanding their function. The programmable CRISPR-Cas9 system enables efficient targeting of large numbers of genes through the use of single guide RNA (sgRNA) libraries. In cultured mammalian cells, collections of knockout mutants can be readily generated by means of transduction of Cas9-sgRNA lentiviral pools, screened for a phenotype of interest, and counted using high-throughput DNA sequencing. This technique represents the first general method for undertaking systematic loss-of-function genetic screens in mammalian cells. Here, we introduce the methodology and rationale for conducting CRISPR-based screens, focusing on distinguishing positive and negative selection strategies.
