RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 How can gene-editing of human pluripotent stem cells help cystic fibrosis? JF European Respiratory Journal JO Eur Respir J FD European Respiratory Society SP OA2125 DO 10.1183/13993003.congress-2019.OA2125 VO 54 IS suppl 63 A1 Sara Cuevas Ocana A1 Amy Wong A1 Magomet Aushev A1 Jin Ye Yang A1 Neil Perkins A1 Christine Bear A1 Janet Rossant A1 Michael Gray YR 2019 UL http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/54/suppl_63/OA2125.abstract AB Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a monogenic recessive disorder, affecting 70,000 people worldwide. CF is due to mutations in the CFTR gene, resulting in a defective protein that leads to symptoms in numerous organs, especially lungs. Despite recent advances, the lack of CF material contributes to the unmet need to find effective treatments for 55% of CF patients, and to restore the function of all affected tissues.A potential strategy would be to use gene-editing technologies (TALENs or CRISPR/Cas9) to introduce into or correct specific mutations in pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) that can be turned into any other cell type. But current protocols for gene-editing hPSCs are often complicated, lengthy (6-8 months) and costly, thus, being restricted to a few specialised labs.This study describes an optimised protocol to correct the W1282X mutation in 3 CF hPSC lines derived from an adult and children with CF (iPSCs), by transfecting a CRISPR/Cas9 plasmid, a selection plasmid and a donor template. Corrected iPSCs were produced in 3-6 weeks. This protocol was previously used to generate the most common CF genotype, ∆F508/∆F508, from healthy hPSCs using TALENs.This work demonstrated that optimising each step of the gene-editing process, including an efficient transfection of hPSCs, and rapid isolation and screening for corrected cells, can produce in vitro models for CF in less than one month with minimum costs. These cells generated from paediatric or adult CF patients can be used to generate mutation-customised tissue-specific cultures holding great promise to advance drug testing and personalised medicine for CF.Supported by CF Trust-SRC003, CFIT (SickKids, CF-Canada Foundation), Emily’s Entourage.FootnotesCite this article as: European Respiratory Journal 2019; 54: Suppl. 63, OA2125.This is an ERS International Congress abstract. No full-text version is available. Further material to accompany this abstract may be available at www.ers-education.org (ERS member access only).