Awarded in 2016
Home Department: Computer Science

Faculty Advisors: Anshul Kundaje (Computer Science, Genetics) and Michael Bassik (Genetics)

Research Title: Finding the genetic drivers of cancer with CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing

Research Description: Cancer is typically caused by harmful "driver" mutations that make a person's cells grow abnormally. Unfortunately, tumors accumulate many harmless "passenger" mutations as they grow, making the true drivers difficult to discern. Worse, most drivers are not in genes, and it is often unclear which genes they target. Michael’s research involves using CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing to test thousands of candidate drivers from cancer genomics studies in a single experiment and seeing which ones affect cell growth, then using computational methods to predict their target genes. Michael hopes to collaborate with other researchers to understand how these genes cause cancer and to determine whether they are promising drug targets.

WHERE IS HE NOW?

Michael is a PI at Mount Sinai Hospital's Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute in Toronto.