Gene editing opens up powerful new ways of treating disease and requires new tools to ensure their safe and efficacious use in patients. It also comes with potential risks, for example, the malignant transformation of target cells caused by culturing cells outside the body, which can introduce mutations that confer growth advantages to cells. Gene editing can also directly cause genomic instability in cells harboring pre-existing DNA repair defects, and DNA breaks at sites other than the intended target. These changes can activate proto-oncogenes, disrupt tumor suppressor genes and cause other types of cellular dysfunction.  

Assays for assessing the safety of gene editing therapies using CRISPR and other gene editing technologies lack the sensitivity needed to fully evaluate potential off-target effects. In this webinar, Dr. Simon Reed presents INDUCE-seq, a precise method for testing off-target editing during therapeutic development and treatment follow up. Attendees will hear the results of a study that used INDUCE-seq and duplex sequencing to assess off-target effects following CRISPR-Cas9-based gene editing of five well-studied genetic targets.

Key learnings from the webinar include: 

• An understanding of a new unbiased, whole genome approach for measuring genomic instability in the form of DNA breaks induced by gene editing.
• A demonstration of the relationship between gene editing-induced break formation at both on and off-targets and the effect on mutation rates at these sites.
• An explanation of the sensitivity, specificity, accuracy and precision of the method for measuring on and off-target genomic instability during gene editing.