National day dedicated to CRISPR screening on September 24, 2024
Please note that registration is obligatory !
The last decade has seen the emergence of new genome modification technologies. Published in 2012, the CRISPR/Cas9 system, which was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry to researchers Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna in 2020, is highly flexible, enabling the individual inactivation of all known genes in the genome by targeted DNA cutting. Applied to cancer cells on a large scale (a strategy better known as CRISPR screening), this technology makes it possible to characterize in vivo and in vitro the genes involved in tumor cell survival and proliferation, and to identify new therapeutic vulnerabilities in cancers in an unbiased way, to better understand the mechanisms of resistance and relapse to therapies, or to identify genes capable of potentiating the activity of immunotherapies.
In recent years, epigenetics has been recognized as a major factor in cancer, and specific screening for epigenetic regulators could lead to major discoveries for the development of epidrogens.
In view of the significant therapeutic potential of these functional genomics approaches, particularly in oncology, three platforms have been set up in France in 2017, 2020 and 2021 to promote the implementation of these high-throughput screens:
- The first, based at the Institut Curie (CRISPR'it), is headed by Raphaël Margueron and Michel Wassef.
- The second is a multi-site platform in the South of France, coordinated by Bernard Mari (IPMC, Nice), Salvatore Spicuglia (TAGC, Nice), ELs Verhoyen (C3M, Nice), Sandrine Roulland (CIML, Marseille) and whose development is supported by the Cancéropôle PACA.
- The third platform is located at the Institut Gustave Roussy and managed by Thomas Mercher and Julie Rivière.
At the joint initiative of the Institut Curie and South Region platforms, a first "CRISPR screening in Cancer Discovery" symposium was held in September 2022 (Marseille). This initiative is being renewed in 2024 with the organization of a second edition on September 24, 2024, which aims to bring together a community of researchers on a national and even European scale interested in different aspects of CRISPR/Cas9 screening, ranging from fundamental biology to cancer therapy and biotechnological development.