# Application of the CRISPR/Cas9-based gene editing technique in basic research, diagnosis, and therapy of cancer

Review · Huimin Zhang, Chunhong Qin, Changming An, Xiwang Zheng, Shuxin Wen, Wenjie Chen, Xianfang Liu, Zhenghua Lv, Ping–Chang Yang, Wei Xu, Wei Gao, Yongyan Wu

- Archive id: doi:10.1186/s12943-021-01431-6
- Published: 2021-10-01
- Venue: Molecular Cancer
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12943-021-01431-6
- PMID: 34598686
- Citations: 249
- Source URL: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12943-021-01431-6
- PDF: https://molecular-cancer.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12943-021-01431-6
- Provenance: openalex

## Abstract

The 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna for the development of the Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/CRISPR-associated nuclease9 (CRISPR/Cas9) gene editing technology that provided new tools for precise gene editing. It is possible to target any genomic locus virtually using only a complex nuclease protein with short RNA as a site-specific endonuclease. Since cancer is caused by genomic changes in tumor cells, CRISPR/Cas9 can be used in the field of cancer research to edit genomes for exploration of the mechanisms of tumorigenesis and development. In recent years, the CRISPR/Cas9 system has been increasingly used in cancer research and treatment and remarkable results have been achieved. In this review, we introduced the mechanism and development of the CRISPR/Cas9-based gene editing system. Furthermore, we summarized current applications of this technique for basic research, diagnosis and therapy of cancer. Moreover, the potential applications of CRISPR/Cas9 in new emerging hotspots of oncology research were discussed, and the challenges and future directions were highlighted.

_Abstract reproduced under CC-BY (publisher license, via OpenAlex)._

Topics: [CRISPR & Gene-Editing Therapies](https://space-kitty.com/topics/gene-editing-therapies)

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