Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 23, 2025
Gene Knock-in by CRISPR/Cas9 and Cell Sorting in Macrophage and T Cell Lines
Published on: November 13, 2021
Pooled Knockin Targeting for Genome Engineering of Cellular Immunotherapies
Theodore L Roth1, P Jonathan Li2, Franziska Blaeschke2
1Medical Scientist Training Program, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA; Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA; Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA; Diabetes Center, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA; Innovative Genomics Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
Abstract:
Adoptive transfer of genetically modified immune cells holds great promise for cancer immunotherapy. CRISPR knockin targeting can improve cell therapies, but more high-throughput methods are needed to test which knockin gene constructs most potently enhance primary cell functions in vivo. We developed a widely adaptable technology to barcode and track targeted integrations of large non-viral DNA templates and applied it to perform pooled knockin screens in primary human T cells. Pooled knockin of dozens of unique barcoded templates into the T cell receptor (TCR)-locus revealed gene constructs that enhanced fitness in vitro and in vivo. We further developed pooled knockin sequencing (PoKI-seq), combining single-cell transcriptome analysis and pooled knockin screening to measure cell abundance and cell state ex vivo and in vivo. This platform nominated a novel transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) R2-41BB chimeric receptor that improved solid tumor clearance. Pooled knockin screening enables parallelized re-writing of endogenous genetic sequences to accelerate discovery of knockin programs for cell therapies.
