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CRISPR Screens Pinpoint Core Pluripotency Genes in Stem Cells

7/2/2026

Summary

**CRISPR Maps Pluripotency**

CRISPR screens identified core pluripotency genes in human stem cells (Ihry et al., 2019).
Improved sgRNA design and CRISPR-Cas9 libraries raised screen efficiency and cut off-targets (Doench et al., 2016).
OCT4 knockdown induced endoderm and trophoblast markers in embryonic stem cells (Zafarana et al., 2009).
TP53 loss sharply increased proliferation and survival (Amir et al., 2017).
SAG/RBX2 regulated oxidative stress influencing self-renewal (Sun & Li, 2013; Hu et al., 2018).

Summary

**Nourreddine Releases**

Nourreddine et al. released a genome-scale CRISPRi perturbation atlas for human induced pluripotent stem cells in 2026.
Rood, Hupalowska and Regev introduced a 2024 foundation model that maps perturbations to causal cell and tissue biology.
Heumos et al. issued 2023 best-practice guidelines for multimodal single-cell analysis, recommending the Harmony method (Korsunsky et al., 2019) for fast dataset integration.

Summary

**RNA Editing Regulates**

ADAR1 averts fatal type I interferon induction by ZBP1, preventing lethal immune activation.
DDX39B acts as a global repressor of A-to-I RNA editing, revealed by multimodal CRISPR screens.
DHX9 bidirectionally regulates A-to-I editing, shaping cancer transcriptomes through both promotion and suppression.
Intron-recycling defects generate endogenous double-stranded RNA that suppresses antiviral responses.
The debranching enzyme DBR1 controls lariat RNA turnover, linking splicing fidelity to editing regulation.

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**CRISPR Maps Pluripotency**

CRISPR screens identified core pluripotency genes in human stem cells (Ihry et al., 2019).
Improved sgRNA design and CRISPR-Cas9 libraries raised screen efficiency and cut off-targets (Doench et al., 2016).
OCT4 knockdown induced endoderm and trophoblast markers in embryonic stem cells (Zafarana et al., 2009).
TP53 loss sharply increased proliferation and survival (Amir et al., 2017).
SAG/RBX2 regulated oxidative stress influencing self-renewal (Sun & Li, 2013; Hu et al., 2018).

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