• CRISPR-SONIC: targeted somatic oncogene knock-in enables rapid in vivo cancer modeling

      Mou, Haiwei; Ozata, Deniz M.; Smith, Jordan L.; Sheel, Ankur; Kwan, Suet-Yan; Hough, Soren; Kucukural, Alper; Kennedy, Zachary; Cao, Yueying; Xue, Wen (2019-04-16)
      CRISPR/Cas9 has revolutionized cancer mouse models. Although loss-of-function genetics by CRISPR/Cas9 is well-established, generating gain-of-function alleles in somatic cancer models is still challenging because of the low efficiency of gene knock-in. Here we developed CRISPR-based Somatic Oncogene kNock-In for Cancer Modeling (CRISPR-SONIC), a method for rapid in vivo cancer modeling using homology-independent repair to integrate oncogenes at a targeted genomic locus. Using a dual guide RNA strategy, we integrated a plasmid donor in the 3'-UTR of mouse beta-actin, allowing co-expression of reporter genes or oncogenes from the beta-actin promoter. We showed that knock-in of oncogenic Ras and loss of p53 efficiently induced intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma in mice. Further, our strategy can generate bioluminescent liver cancer to facilitate tumor imaging. This method simplifies in vivo gain-of-function genetics by facilitating targeted integration of oncogenes.
    • Understanding and repurposing CRISPR-mediated alternative splicing

      Smith, Jordan L.; Mou, Haiwei; Xue, Wen (2018-11-06)
      Two new studies refine our understanding of CRISPR-associated exon skipping and redefine its utility in engineering alternative splicing.