Genomic amplifications cause false positives in CRISPR screens

Abstract

In CRISPR-based screens for essential genes, Munoz and colleagues and Aguirre and colleagues show that gene-independent targeting of genomic amplifications in human cancer cell lines reduces proliferation or survival. The correlation between CRISPR target site copy number and lethality demonstrates the need for scrutiny and complementary approaches to rule out off-target effects and false positives in CRISPR screens.