CRISPR/Cas9-Based Positive Screens for Cancer-Related Traits

Since the advent of large-scale, detailed descriptive cancer genomics studies at the beginning of the century, such as The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), labs around the world have been working to make this data useful. Data like these can be made more useful by comparison with complementary functional genomic data. One new example is the application of CRISPR/Cas9-based library screening for cancer-related traits in cell lines. Such screens can reveal genome-wide suppressors of tumorigenesis and metastasis. Here we describe the use of widely available lentiviral libraries for such screens in cultured cell lines.