To date, more than 1000 genes and over 2000 copy number variants (CNVs) have been reported in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). However, the pathogenic contributions of specific genes affected by ASD-associated duplications are still largely uncharacterized. This project will utilize our published inducible dCasActivator-H9 cell line and a lentivirus sgRNA library targeting the genes duplicated in known cases of ASD to conduct a functional screening. The findings discovered from this project will provide an important insight on different ASD-related duplications and complement the existing gene perturbation screening results to form a comprehensive gene regulatory network in ASD conditions.
