title: GT-Scan: identifying unique genomic targets.
abstract: A number of technologies, including CRISPR/Cas, transcription activator-like effector nucleases and zinc-finger nucleases, allow the user to target a chosen locus for genome editing or regulatory interference. Specificity, however, is a major problem, and the targeted locus must be chosen with care to avoid inadvertently affecting other loci ('off-targets') in the genome. To address this we have created 'Genome Target Scan' (GT-Scan), a flexible web-based tool that ranks all potential targets in a user-selected region of a genome in terms of how many off-targets they have. GT-Scan gives the user flexibility to define the desired characteristics of targets and off-targets via a simple 'target rule', and its interactive output allows detailed inspection of each of the most promising candidate targets. GT-Scan can be used to identify optimal targets for CRISPR/Cas systems, but its flexibility gives it potential to be adapted to other genome-targeting technologies as well.
  
  
  METHODS
  GT-Scan can be run via the web at: http://gt-scan.braembl.org.au.
authors.affiliation: Genomics and Computational Biology, Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld. 4072, Australia.
authors.forename: Aidan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: O'Brien
authors.affiliation: Genomics and Computational Biology, Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld. 4072, Australia.
authors.forename: Timothy L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Bailey
mesh_terms: D064112:Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats / Q000235:genetics; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods*; D004720:Endonucleases / Q000378:metabolism; D005818:Genetic Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D015894:Genome, Human / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet
chemical_list: D004720:Endonucleases