CRISPR as a telescope for complex disease

Beyond direct therapeutic use, CRISPR can serve as a new kind of telescope: systematically perturbing each of the ~20,000 genes one by one in cell cultures under stressors lets researchers map gene effects and generate synthetic data, which is especially valuable for 'complex' diseases (non-infectious, non-monogenic — most cancers, autoimmune, cardiovascular, neurodegenerative) where understanding the genetic pathway could reveal how the disease arises and enable conventional treatments.