Functional genetic screens for enhancer elements in the human genome using CRISPR-Cas9

Systematic identification of noncoding regulatory elements has, to date, mainly relied on large-scale reporter assays that do not reproduce endogenous conditions. We present two distinct CRISPR-Cas9 genetic screens to identify and characterize functional enhancers in their native context. Our strategy is to target Cas9 to transcription factor binding sites in enhancer regions. We identified several functional enhancer elements and characterized...