The Ventura lab, in collaboration with the Leslie lab, is proud to introduce GuideScan, a new open source software and a companion website that we hope will greatly simplify and improve the design of CRISPR libraries.
The GuideScan website allows users to design gRNAs for SpCas9 or for Cpf1 for the most common model organisms, while the command line tool is fully customizable and allows the more experienced users to generate gRNA database for any genome of interest and for any RNA-programmable endonucleases.
The algorithm GuideScan uses to identify gRNAs is different from most other currently available online tools, and guarantees that the gRNAs returned will have no perfect or near perfect off target sites elsewhere in the genome. It also return the total number and the location of potential off target sites with 2 or 3 mismatches.
Another advantage of GuideScan is that it allows to generate paired gRNAs libraries with a simple mouse click. Simply input a list of genomic coordinates in any of the supported formats (or upload a file), choose whether you want single gRNAs cutting within the each genomic region, or pair of gRNAs flanking it, and then click the ‘Guide Me’ button. For more details, please checkout our Nature Biotechnology paper.
Kudos to Alex, Yuri, and Joana for leading this project and bringing it to completion in record time!
The Ventura Lab 