Abstract 1786 CRISPR epigenome editing for programming gene silencing without DNA breaks

The ability to safely tune the expression of any human gene is a major goal in biology and medicine. Advances in CRISPR have resulted in tools that enable programmable repression and activation of gene expression. Recently, we pioneered the CRISPRoff epigenome editing technology that can program long-term, heritable repression of genes by ‘writing' DNA methylation and repressive histone modifications on endogenous genes. CRISPRoff bypasses the need to induce harmful double-stranded DNA breaks for durable gene silencing, making it a safer alternative approach for gene perturbation.