AGBT Presentation: Studying CRISPR guide RNA specificity by amplification-free long-read sequencing

At AGBT 2020, Adam Ameur from Uppsala University discussed the use of long-read PacBio sequencing to detect off-target results from CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing studies. His team uses HiFi reads from the Sequel II System to perform whole genome sequencing and figure out exactly where guide RNAs bind. In one example using a human embryonic kidney cell line, they found 55 off-target sites for three guide RNAs. Ameur’s group has already generated preliminary data on results from editing living cells.