Molecular profiling of gene-edited cells reveals shared drug-resistance mechanisms

A platform for tracking the changes in gene expression and chromatin accessibility that follow interference with specific genes has been developed. The platform, called PerturbFate, was applied to skin-cancer cells and showed that different genetic perturbations associated with tumour resistance push cells into a shared dedifferentiated state. Many genetic perturbations that cause resistance to an anticancer drug do so through common pathways.