Machine learning based CRISPR gRNA design for therapeutic exon skipping
Author(s)
Louie, Wilson,M. Eng.Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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Alternative title
Machine learning based Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats gRNA design for therapeutic exon skipping
Other Contributors
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
Advisor
David Gifford.
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Show full item recordAbstract
The restoration of gene function by the induced skipping of a deleterious exon has been shown to be effective for treating genetic disorders. However, many of the clinically successful therapies for exon skipping are transient oligonucleotide-based treatments that require frequent dosing. CRISPR-Cas9 based genome editing that causes exon skipping is a promising therapeutic modality that offers permanent alleviation of genetic disease. We show that machine learning can select Cas9 guide RNAs that disrupt splice acceptors and cause the skipping of targeted exons. We experimentally measured the exon skipping frequencies of a diverse genome-integrated library of 791 splice sequences targeted by 1,063 guide RNAs in mouse embryonic stem cells. We found that our method, SkipGuide, is able to identify effective guide RNAs with a precision of 0.72 and 0.91, when using threshold predicted exon skipping frequencies of 50% and 70% respectively. We anticipate that SkipGuide will be useful for selecting guide RNA candidates for evaluation of CRISPR-Cas9-mediated exon skipping therapy.
Description
Thesis: M. Eng. in Computer Science and Molecular Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, May, 2020 Cataloged from the official PDF of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (pages 83-86).
Date issued
2020Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer SciencePublisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Keywords
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.