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Förstemann Lab - Research

Efficient tools for genome engineering

Because we study how the genome changes dynamically, we need to also make defined changes and then study how the cells respond. Just like in any other field of molecular biology, the recent advent of easily programmable nucleases for genome editing has transformed our research. We have developed somatic, clonal Drosophila cell lines with stable expression of the cas9 enzyme. The nuclease can be efficiently programmed with PCR-based sgRNA expression cassettes, giving us unprecedented ease and flexibility in our approaches. Whether we want to introduce site-specific DNA breaks, observe the efficiency of homologous recombination, add functionality to a particular genomic position or simply introduce epitope tags for biochemical purposes – the CRISPR/cas system enables us to go forward with experiments that were inconceivable just a few years ago.