The CRISPR technology has accelerated research via allowing scientists to "edit" the genomes in a fast and precise manner, generating mutants at an unprecedented speed and scale. Multiplexed CRISPR editing, which generates a combination of knockouts, has opened up the opportunity to probe the complexity in the biological system. “In our recent study published in Cell Reports, we used three-way CRISPR gene editing (CombiGEM-CRISPR v.2.0 toolkits) followed by High-throughput Next Generation Sequencing to screen for therapeutic targets for ovarian cancer. Using the CRISPR-based method HKUMed researchers create a screening platform to discover new combination therapies for ovarian cancer and Parkinson’s disease
Dr. Alan Wong, Assistant Professor (middle); and his team, Ms. Becky Chan (1st left), Dr. Nick Zhou (2nd left), Ms. Yukki Wan (2nd right), and Ms. Cindy Tong (1st right).
Streptococcus pyogenes Cas9 (SpCas9) nuclease. After systemati- cally characterizing 948 mutation combinations, we identi ed Opti-SpCas9, which exhibits enhanced editing speci city with wide-type comparable potency and broad targeting range. The results are published in Nature Methods.”
to generate multi-knockouts and NGS to survey the "edits" via synthetic barcodes, we can systematically screen through a vast amount of gene combinations and identify the top-performing drug targets. Based on the results of the multi-knockouts screen on ovarian cancer cell lines, we further formulated a cocktail of three drugs suppressing ovarian cancer cell growth e ectively in mouse
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“Screening en-masse enabled by our combinatorial platforms is a powerful tool to address complex biological questions including gene-gene interactions and mutational epistasis. It is also shown to be promising in fast-tracked drug discovery.”
models. Similarly, we performed a dual CRISPR gene-knock- out screen and identi ed e ective drug combinations to confer protection against Parkinson’s disease (PD)-associated toxicity. Leveraging the mass production of synthetic barcoded protein variants and NGS technology, we built an e ective screening platform (CombiSEAL) to optimize the
In the near future, Dr. Wong and his team are eager to up-scale their combinatorial screening approaches, and apply their methods investigating more complex systems such as gene regulatory networks.
The 6th Hong Kong University Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition
viral targets, such as SARS-CoV-2. Being given the opportunity to present this device at this year’s competition was a fantastic way to get invaluable insight from industry experts. We were able to discuss with them various new approaches, more e ective designs and entrepreneurial experiences that have greatly helped develop our device even further. While this year’s competition was di erent from previous years due to the pandemic, we believe it was still a very enriching event that is hard to get in a purely academic setting. This entire experience has given our team a road map on how we can translate our research into a useful tool." - Yeung Lo Each year, the Hong Kong New Generation Cultural Association selects the most outstanding projects to represent Hong Kong, exposing talented Hong Kong students to cutting-edge innovative and entrepreneurship ideas and inspiring them with academic exchange among the brightest students nationwide.
Congratulations to Yeung Lo and Lin Wang, PhD candidates of the School of Biomedical Sciences, on winning the 1st prize of the 6th Hong Kong University Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition under the Innovation – Life Sciences category with their project “Highly sensitive, adaptable synthetic antibody based biosensor for infectious diseases”. "Infectious diseases such as malaria and the current COVID-19 pandemic have highlighted the importance of rapid, accurate diagnostic devices. So our team hoped to tackle this need and make a di erence with our project submission to this year’s competition. With tremendous inspiration and support from our supervisor, colleagues and laboratory, we were able to develop a novel DNA-based electrochemical biosensing platform that allowed for the instantaneous detection of viral proteins in patient blood. By using this DNA format, we are hopeful to quickly adapt our platform into sensing many other
Mr Lin Wang (left) and Mr Yeung Lo (right)
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