The iPSC CRISPR Facility is an expertise center intended to support, help, train and advise researchers with their respective iPSC and CRISPR-Cas9 experiments. The facility offers its services to and collaborates with researchers (both within the UMCG/RUG as well as external clients from academia and industry) that see possibilities for iPSC and / or CRISPR-Cas9 in their research. The facility offers to generate iPSC from human somatic cells derived from multiple sources and provides full characterization of iPSC clones with the option to introduce genetic changes using CRISPR-Cas9 technology.
Contact
If you are interested in making use of our expertise, please use the Request Form.
For questions, please contact:
Email: ips.crispr.facility@umcg.nl
Post address: ERIBA, UMCG, Building 3226, PO Box 196, Internal Zip Code FA50, 9700 AD Groningen
Telephone: +31 50 3616435
[[Background iPSC and CRISPR-Cas9
Due to their potential to self-renew and their capacity to differentiate into any cell type, stem cells are of crucial interest both for basic research as well as for the development of regenerative therapies. While (embryonic) stem cells are difficult to acquire, the groundbreaking discovery that differentiated somatic cells can be reprogrammed into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) has generated an easy and virtually limitless source of stem cells.
Another great leap in biomedical science in recent years has been the discovery that the adaptive bacterial immune system CRISPR-Cas9 can be repurposed as a versatile tool for human genome editing. Many human diseases are caused by alterations in the DNA. Such genetic mutations can either be inherited or acquired during life. Over the past decade, many disease-causing mutations have been identified and techniques have been developed to quickly identify them in patients. Genome editing techniques including CRISPR-Cas9 have made it possible to revert disease mutations, thereby enabling the restoration of normal cell function. Performing genome editing on patient-derived iPSC offers an excellent tool for disease modelling and furthermore may allow to cure diseases in the future. While these techniques hold enormous therapeutic promise, for now it is unclear whether they are safe enough to be used on patients. The iPSC CRISPR facility set out to contribute to research that increases our understanding of iPSC and CRISPR-Cas9 and their combined therapeutic potential.
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[[Our Expertise & Services
The facility generates, characterizes and stores iPS cell lines derived from multiple cell types. Over the past 1.5 years we have set up differentiation protocols and we closely collaborate with a number of labs holding extensive experience with differentiating iPS cells into a wide variety of cell types. Moreover, the facility offers to perform several CRISPR genome editing strategies on both iPSC and other cell types. This combined expertise on iPSC and CRISPR allows us to support researchers during any stage of their iPSC and / or CRISPR project, be it either through advice, training or experimental help.
The facility’s services include:
Generation of iPSC
- Isolation of somatic cells from patient material (blood, urine, skin)
- Reprogramming of somatic cells (lentiviral or episomal)
- Generation of iPS cells
Characterization of iPSC
- pluripotency marker gene expression (qPCR or NGS, immunofluorescence)
- differentiation / lineage marker gene expression (qPCR or NGS, immunofluorescence)
- teratoma formation
- karyotyping (metaphase spreads)
- single-cell DNA Seq
Differentiation of iPS and ES cells
- The facility has protocols in place for the differentiation of iPS or ES cells into certain cell types (including neural progenitor cells, astrocytes, microglia and macrophages). We furthermore will test differentiation protocols for iPSC into other cell types upon request and hold collaborations with laboratories with ample experience in differentiating iPSC into a variety of different cell types.
CRISPR Cas9-mediated genome editing
- Gene knock-out
- Gene tagging
- Gene alterations
- Gene regulation (CRISPRi / CRISPRa)
- Screens using human or mouse knock-out libraries
- Visualization of genomic loci
- Epigenetic writers and erasers for the regulation of gene expression (de Groote et al. NAR 2012, Cano-Rodriguez & Rots Curr Genet Med Rep 2016, Cano-Rodriguez et al. Nat Comm 2016)
Digital droplet PCR
- Our platform is available for different applications (including CRISPR-Cas9, detection of rare mutations, copy-number variations, absolute quantification, etc.) for all researchers within the UMCG
Standard operating procedures
We have established standard operating procedures for iPSC culture, isolation and expansion of primary cells (from blood, skin and urine), iPSC reprogramming (lentiviral and episomal) and CRISPR editing. Upon request, these SOPs can be made available for researchers within the UMCG/RUG.
Constructs and plasmids
The iPSC CRISPR facility has a collection of plasmids and constructs for iPSC reprogramming, expression of SpCas9 and a number of Cas9 variants, cloning and expression of sgRNAs and CRISPR base editing as well as sgRNA libraries for CRISPR screens in mouse and human cells. For further information, please feel free to contact us (ips.crispr.facility@umcg.nl)
CRISPR transgenic mouse facility
- Generation of conditional knockout mice – recombineering / ES cell culture / blastocyst injection
- Generation of knockout/in mice using CRISPR/Cas9
- Generation of transgenic mice – zygote injection
- Gene targeting of somatic cells using CRISPR/Cas9 – virus delivery methodology / transgenic mice expressing Cas9 (tissue specific)
- Website: http://www.rug.nl/research/pediatrics/liverdigestivemetabolicdiseases/transgenic-mouse-clinic-for-ageing-research-
- Contact: Bart van de Sluis – a.j.a.van.de.sluis@umcg.nl
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[[The team
The iPSC CRISPR and the CRISPR transgenic mouse teams. From left to right and top to bottom: Jonas Seiler, Othman Alhazzaa, Sahil Gupta, Arun Thiruvalluvan, Niels Kloosterhuis, Eline Sportel, Bart van de Sluis, Floris Foijer, René Wardenaar, Nicolette Huijkman, Mathilde Broekhuis, and Eslie Rozema-Huizinga]]
[[iPSC CRISPR team
Floris Foijer
Floris Foijer (1976) received his PhD for his work on cell cycle regulation at The Netherlands Cancer Institute (2006). Following postdoctoral studies at Harvard Medical School (2007-2009) and at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (2009-2011), he moved to ERIBA to start his own lab. Throughout his studies, Floris has had a fond interest in stem cel biology and genome engineering in various model systems. This is why he, in 2016, together with Bart van de Sluis, established the ERIBA Technology centre that supports UMCG and RUG investigators with projects related to induced pluripotent stem cells and CRISPR genome engineering. Since then, the ERIBA Technology center has supported and continues to support numerous fundamental and translational projects brought in by university personnel and external clients. Together, Bart and Floris make sure that the ERIBA Technology center implements the latest protocols and technologies required for their mission and ensure that projects are well-supported by the facility staff. As such, the ERIBA Technology center supports the UMCG and RUG mission to maintain our leading role in regenerative medicine now and in the future.
Mathilde Broekhuis
Mathilde has been trained as a technician in medical biochemistry at the Saxion Hogeschool in Enschede. After her studies she moved to Rotterdam to work in the lab of Rob Pieters at the department of Pediatric Oncology. She performed cytotoxicity assays and mutation detection on material from leukemia patients. In 2009, Mathilde moved to the lab of Gerald de Haan at the UMCG/RUG. She assisted in fundamental research on the hematopoietic system, performing lineage tracing and in vitro analysis. Lab management also became one of her interests, especially when the lab moved to the new ERIBA institute. Mathilde was the first team member of the new iPSC CRISPR facility that was started up at the end of 2015. As a senior technician she is involved in setting up a the facility lab and performing iPSC and CRISPR-mediated genome engineering.
René Wardenaar
René Wardenaar obtained his PhD in 2016 from the University of Groningen. His thesis described the analysis of sequencing data (whole-genome and bisulfite sequencing) and tiling array data (MeDIP-chip) generated by several studies that are focused on quantifying the contribution of DNA methylation to heritable phenotypic variation in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Part of his thesis got published in Science in 2014, in which he, together with colleagues and collaborators, described how differentially methylated regions (DMRs) can contribute to phenotypic variation independently from sequence variation and act as bona fide epigenetic quantitative trait loci. Besides these plant-related studies he also participated in other projects that for example were focused on the role of DNA methylation in cervical cancer and the extent of structural variation in the Dutch population. He has a broad interest in biology and joined the iPSC – CRISPR facility in July 2018 where he is supporting the team with the analysis of various types of data.
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[[CRISPR transgenic mouse team
Bart van de Sluis
Principal investigator and head of the CRISPR transgenic mouse facility
Nicolette Huijkman
Marieke Smit
Niels Kloosterhuis
Eline Sportel
