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BE Seminar, Pooled Microscopy-Based CRISPR Screens by Dr. Krishna Choudhary
March 10 @ 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Speaker: Dr. Krishna Choudhary
Postdoctoral Scholar, University of California, San Francisco.
Date:10th March
Time: 4.00 PM
Venue: TCS Smart X Building, Classroom 03 – (G F – 12)
Title: Pooled Microscopy-Based CRISPR Screens
Abstract: Pooled CRISPR screens have revolutionized the process of identifying genetic targets for drug development. Traditional CRISPR screens typically focus on a single phenotype, such as cell death. While this has provided valuable insights into gene essentiality and resistance to cell death, it has generally failed to uncover functional information for most of the genome. Pooled screening lacks the richness of data achievable through microscopy-based phenotypic screens.
Arrayed microscopy-based screens offer more detailed insights into cancer cell states, such as cell morphology and subcellular protein localization. However, the challenges associated with executing large-scale arrayed screens and analyzing the resulting images have limited the scalability and accessibility of high-content microscopy-based CRISPR screens.
In this talk, He will present an integrated wet lab and computational platform for pooled microscopy-based CRISPR screens. His technology uses epitope combinations attached to a fluorescent protein to barcode CRISPR guide identities. Combined with multiplexed immunofluorescence microscopy, which enables the simultaneous quantification of multiple phenotypic markers and CRISPR guide identities at the single-cell level, this platform allows for the pooling of CRISPR perturbations. By reducing the cost and manual labor requirements, his work will democratize the use of microscopy-based CRISPR screens, accelerating therapeutic target discovery and drug development.
About the Speaker: Dr.Krishna is a bioengineer and data scientist with expertise in developing high-throughput technologies that bridge wet lab biology and data science. His published work spans a range of biological systems, from microbes and RNA viruses to yeast, neurological disorders, and cardiovascular disease models. He actively collaborates with diverse biomedical researchers to drive innovations that may translate into impactful therapies and diagnostics for human health.
Dr. Krishna earned his BTech and MTech in Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology from IIT Delhi (2013). He then completed his Ph.D. at the University of California, Davis in 2019, where his research focused on developing statistical methods for the analysis of high-throughput sequencing-based RNA structurome profiling data. Following his PhD, Krishna worked as a bioinformatician/statistician at the Gladstone Institutes, San Francisco, where he gained experience with diverse sequencing-based assays and single-cell technologies. In 2021, he began postdoctoral training at the University of California San Francisco, where he expanded his research skill set in the wet lab, gaining expertise in synthetic biology, CRISPR technologies, and high-content microscopy.
In the future, Dr. Krishna aims to continue exploring the genetic basis of complex diseases, with a focus on developing precision therapies and novel diagnostic tools. His interdisciplinary training in both computational and experimental approaches positions him to make meaningful contributions to the field of bioengineering and data-driven healthcare innovation.