cancers Review CRISPR Screens in Synthetic Lethality and Combinatorial Therapies for Cancer Laia Castells-Roca 1,2,3,* , Eudald Tejero 4, Benjamín Rodríguez-Santiago 2,5 and Jordi Surrallés 1,2,3,5,* 1 Genome Instability and DNA Repair Syndromes Group, Sant Pau Biomedical Research Institute (IIB Sant Pau) and Join Unit UAB-IR Sant Pau on Genomic Medicine, 08041 Barcelona, Spain 2 Genetics Department, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, 08041 Barcelona, Spain;
[email protected] 3 Genetics and Microbiology Department, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Spain 4 Sant Pau Biomedical Research Institute (IIB Sant Pau), 08041 Barcelona, Spain;
[email protected] 5 Center for Biomedical Network Research on Rare Diseases (CIBERER) and Sant Pau Biomedical Research Institute (IIB Sant Pau), 08041 Barcelona, Spain * Correspondence:
[email protected] (L.C.-R.);
[email protected] (J.S.); Tel.: +34-93-291-9000 (ext. 8263) (L.C.-R.); +34-93-5537376 (J.S.) Simple Summary: The synthetic lethality (SL) clinical success of PARP inhibitors in homologous recombinant deficient tumors has established a new concept for cancer treatment. For decades, efforts have centered on identifying genetic interactions for determining essential tumoral genes, and more recently, SL interactions to determine combinational treatments against persistent cancer reappearance. Currently, the feasibility of CRISPR screen methodology has emerged as the state of the art for uncovering new SL or viable interactors in the biology and treatment of cancers. We present the up-to-date research of numerous laboratories that take advantage of the genome-wide forward genetic CRISPR screen tools and protocols to identify cancer biomarkers, genetic interactions and novel therapies.