Copenhagen Center for Glycomics collaborates with Desktop Genetics to analyze their novel CRISPR assay
London, UK — Copenhagen Center for Glycomics (CCG) and Desktop Genetics (DTG) today announced a collaboration to develop the next-generation of CRISPR analysis. The project is designed to provide a deeper understanding of a novel method of identifying nuclease-generated mutations developed by the lab of Dr. Eric Paul Bennett. The method is currently used by CCG and its spin-out company, Glycodisplay Aps. The improvements to this tool will be a driver for broader use in academia and industry.
The method developed by Dr. Bennett, called Indel Detection by Amplicon Analysis (IDAA), significantly reduces the workload of cell line editing by facilitating the initial screening of newly generated nuclease reagents, as well as the subsequent generation of edited cell pools or clonal cell lines. It reduces the number of clones necessary to create a stable cell line and increases the ease with which they are screened. Desktop Genetics will analyze CRISPR indel formation using their machine learning expertise. Their team will be working with CCG to analyze a dataset of 800 guides designed on the DESKGEN Cloud platform to explore the capabilities of IDAA.
Dr. Bennett said, “We realized that an in-depth analysis of the experimentally validated, unbiased and well defined-indel profiles generated by 800 unique Cas9 guides could contribute to improving the predictive value of guide RNA design algorithms. Therefore, Desktop Genetics, with its leading position in the field of genome editing bioinformatics, was chosen as a partner to undertake this extensive analytical task.”
Dr. Leigh Brody added, “This co-investigation will enable researchers to extract much more information from the IDAA assay by combining Eric’s and our teams’ expertise to deeply analyze these interesting datasets. This will provide a better understanding of CRISPR activity and, in turn, serve our broader goal of offering a comprehensive solution for genome editing analysis.”
Desktop Genetics
https://www.deskgen.com/
Desktop Genetics is a recognized leader in CRISPR technology, staffed by a team of genome editing experts, bioinformaticians and data scientists driven by the real-world impact of CRISPR technology. The Company provides genome editing products and services to pharmaceutical, academic and biotechnology customers globally. Desktop Genetics’ tools and technologies have been used by over 1800 organizations globally.
Copenhagen Center for Glycomics
Copenhagen Center for Glycomics (CCG) was appointed a Center of Excellence by the Danish National Research Foundation in 2012. CCG is world leader in glycosciences including diseases caused by altered glycosylation, development of new diagnostic tools and novel glycoprotein therapeutics. Improving drugs by modifying their glycans is the focus of the CCG spin-out company Glycodisplay Aps (https://glycodisplay.com/).
GLOSSARY
CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) — a system originating in bacteria which can be programmed to target and cut specific regions of genomic DNA based on the sequence of a guide RNA
Indels — a molecular biology term for an insertion or deletion of bases in the genome of an organism, often generated following a cut induced by a nuclease (ZFN, CRISPR, TALEN)
Guide RNA — a 20-nucleotide sequence which directs a CRISPR nuclease, like Cas9, to a specific location in the genome
Sources
Lonowski LA, Narimatsu Y, Riaz A et al. Genome editing using FACS enrichment of nuclease-expressing cells and indel detection by amplicon analysis. Nat Protoc. 2017 Mar;12(3):581-603. doi: 10.1038/nprot.2016.165. Epub 2017 Feb 16. PubMed PMID: 28207001.
Yang Z, Steentoft C, Hauge C et al. Fast and sensitive detection of indels induced by precise gene targeting. Nucleic Acids Res. 2015 May 19;43(9):e59. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkv126. Epub 2015 Mar 9. PubMed PMID: 25753669.
