ABOVE: A cerebral organoid
© IMBA/KNOBLICH LAB
The paper
C. Esk et al., “A human tissue screen identifies a regulator of ER secretion as a brain-size determinant,” Science, 370:935–41, 2020.
Organoids can be invaluable tools for studying human disease. But they’re often difficult to work with—especially when it comes to assessing multiple candidate genes that underlie a particular condition.
Over eight years of work, Jürgen Knoblich and colleagues at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology in Vienna have come up with a way to get around this problem. Their approach combines brain organoids with two other technologies—CRISPR-Cas9 to knock out specific genes and DNA barcoding to track individual cells and their progeny.
The researchers recently trialed their approach, dubbed CRISPR-LIneage tracing at Cellular resolution in Heterogeneous Tissue (CRISPR-LICHT), in a screen for genes linked to microcephaly, a condition in which a baby’s head is smaller than expected. The team found 13 genes with ...
