Andrea Zhao
I am a current PhD candidate undertaking paediatric cancer research under A/Prof. Paul Ekert’s supervision in the Translational Tumour Biology (TTB) group at Children’s Cancer Institute (CCIA) and the University of New South Wales (UNSW). My project will utilise CRISPR-Cas13b as a novel functional genomic tool to characterise aberrant fusion gene drivers in paediatric cancer. CRISPR-Cas13 is a new programmable RNA editing system with a higher target specificity than CRISPR-Cas9 and RNA interference systems. Unlike CRISPR-Cas9, the system is reversible with fewer off-target effects which ideally enables a more robust readout. The project will involve silencing oncogenic fusions with target specific CRISPR-Cas13 guides. RNA sequencing and phosphoproteomics will be applied for a non-biased approach to driver characterisation and identification of novel molecular targets. Hit genes and proteins identified will be silenced with CRISPR-Cas13 in order to validate the gene dependency between the target and fusion driver. This system will serve as a widely applicable functional genomic tool to any oncogenic driver for characterisation and therapeutic development.
Abstracts this author is presenting: