Research Focus 3: Studying Human Diseases using Functional Genomics in Primary Stem Cell Models
Towards the goal of experimental-validated functional annotation of the entire human genome, we will use CRISPR-guided mutagenesis to establish a collection of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) harboring deletions and point mutations on both annotated and less-annotated genomic regions relevant for human disease. This will serve as a versatile platform to systemically assess functions of genomic features on gene regulation, cell fate control, disease ontology, etc, in multiple human cell lineages and differentiation states in authentic human genetic background.