CRISPRi-mediated transcriptional silencing in iPSCs for the study of human brain development

This protocol describes the design and use of CRISPRi-mediated transcriptional silencing in human iPSCs, for loss-of-function studies in brain development research. The protocol avoids single cell selection, thereby eliminating side effects of clonal expansion and sites of viral integration. We also describe a neural progenitor differentiation protocol and discuss the challenges of target-specific lentiviral silencing, efficient silencing levels, and off-target effects. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Johansson et al. (2022).