Research Centre for Infectious Diseases, Department of Molecular and Biomedical Sciences, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide 5005, Australia
Byron Shue
Research Centre for Infectious Diseases, Department of Molecular and Biomedical Sciences, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide 5005, Australia
Paul Q. Thomas
Adelaide Medical School, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide 5000, Australia
Michael R. Beard
Research Centre for Infectious Diseases, Department of Molecular and Biomedical Sciences, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide 5005, Australia
Understanding the dynamic relationship between viral pathogens and cellular host factors is critical to furthering our knowledge of viral replication, disease mechanisms and development of anti-viral therapeutics. CRISPR genome editing technology has enhanced this understanding, by allowing identification of pro-viral and anti-viral cellular host factors for a wide range of viruses, most recently the cause of the COVID-19 pandemic, SARS-CoV-2. This review will discuss how CRISPR knockout and CRISPR activation genome-wide screening methods are a robust tool to investigate the viral life cycle and how other class 2 CRISPR systems are being repurposed for diagnostics.
