Abstract

The Functional Biology Toolbox: A Tale of siRNA, miRNA, CRISPR and TALs

Nitin Puri, Associate Director, Life Technologies

Functional biology aims to understand how genes (and proteins) “work” and interact in cells. Over the past 10 years, genome-wide siRNA/miRNA based screening has been used to connect genes to cellular function and to identify novel therapeutic targets in disease. More recently, new cell biology tools like CRISPR and TAL effectors have come forward that now enable researchers to easily customize cells and to investigate functional biology questions in specifically engineered model systems. We will review and compare the various functional reagent technologies and show examples of how these technologies can be used to engineer new cell-based models systems for functional biology research.