CASPER: An Integrated Software Platform for Rapid Development of CRISPR Tools

Both academic and enterprise software solutions exist for designing CRISPR targets. They offer advantages when designing guide RNAs (gRNAs) but often focus on a select number of model organisms. Those that offer a wide variety of organisms can be limited in support of alternative endonucleases and downstream analyses such as multitargeting and population analyses to interrogate a microbiome. To accommodate broad CRISPR utilization, we developed a flexible platform software CRISPR Associated Software for Pathway Engineering and Research (CASPER) for gRNA generation and analysis in any organism and with any CRISPR-Cas system. CASPER combines traditional gRNA design tools with unique functions such as multiple Cas-type gRNA generation and evaluation of spacer redundancy in a single species or microbiome. The analyses have implications for strain-, species-, or genus-specific CRISPR diagnostic probe design and microbiome manipulation. The novel features of CASPER are packaged in a user-friendly interface to create a computational environment for researchers to streamline the utility of CRISPR-Cas systems.