Webinar: Gene-Edited Stem Cells for Disease and Drug Discovery by LabX Media Group

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About This Webinar

CRISPR gene-editing technology revolutionized disease research and drug discovery by facilitating convenient gene modification and high-throughput screening. Researchers now combine the power of CRISPR technology with the biological versatility of stem cells to develop better therapeutic models, uncover disease pathology, and identify viable pharmaceutical targets. This webinar will discuss recent disease and drug discoveries enabled through screening CRISPR-modified stem cells.

Topics to be covered

-CRISPR-Cas9 screening for drug target discovery
-Using CRISPR-based transient reporters for editing enrichment to generate human pluripotent stem cell-based models of Alzheimer's disease

Presenters

Graham MacLeod, PhD

Senior Research Associate, Laboratory of Stephane Angers, PhD Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Toronto

Graham MacLeod obtained his PhD in cell and systems biology in 2013 from the University of Toronto under the supervision of Susannah Varmuza. He used proteomics to identify novel regulatory subunits and substrates of the serine/threonine-protein phosphatase PP1-gamma catalytic subunit (PPP1CC). MacLeod completed a postdoctoral fellowship with Stephane Angers at the University of Toronto where he used functional genomics to identify therapeutic vulnerabilities in brain tumor stem cells. Since 2015, MacLeod has spearheaded a brain tumor functional genomics research program in Angers’ laboratory at the University of Toronto and Centre for Pharmaceutical Oncology. He uses CRISPR/Cas genetic and chemogenomic screening approaches to identify and characterize therapeutic vulnerabilities in glioblastoma, ependymoma, and other cancer stem cell types. MacLeod is also interested in drug discovery in both cancer and regenerative medicine.

David Brafman, PhD, MBA

Associate Professor, School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering Director, Stem Cell Training and Research Program, Arizona State University

David Brafman is an associate professor in the School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering and the director of the Stem Cell Training and Research Program at Arizona State University. Brafman utilizes an interdisciplinary approach that employs human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) as a model system in conjunction with developmental biology, genetic engineering, and bioinformatics to address basic and translational questions related to neurodevelopment and neurodegenerative disease. Brafman’s research team develops new CRISPR-based editing methods for predictable, high-fidelity genome engineering of hPSCs to generate accessible in vitro hPSC-based models of neurodegenerative disease. His work has been featured in ACS Synthetic Biology, BMC Biology, Biomaterials, Molecular Psychiatry, Nature Communications, Nature Protocols, and Stem Cell Reports. Brafman’s research has been funded by the Arizona Alzheimer’s Consortium, Department of Defenses, National Institutes of Health, and National Science Foundation.