By Krishanu Saha, Ph.D., Department of Biomedical Engineering & Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, University of Wisconsin-Madison

At the University of Wisconsin - Madison, one focus of our group is understanding and optimizing CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing for therapeutic and disease modeling applications. To conduct our research, we need reliable, consistent and highly efficient Cas9 protein.

Model system for Cas9 gene editing
To perform targeted gene editing, the Cas9 protein, which cuts the genome, and a guide RNA (gRNA) that encodes where in the genome to cut, need to be complexed together into a ribonuclear protein (RNP) complex and transfected to cells to reach the nucleus. Once the DNA is cut, imprecise DNA repair may cause disruption at the cut site, which can result in knock out of a gene.