PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Emma Haapaniemi AU - Sandeep Botla AU - Jenna Persson AU - Bernhard Schmierer AU - Jussi Taipale TI - Inhibition of p53 improves CRISPR/Cas - mediated precision genome editing AID - 10.1101/180943 DP - 2017 Jan 01 TA - bioRxiv PG - 180943 4099 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/08/25/180943.short 4100 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/08/25/180943.full AB - We report here that genome editing by CRISPR/Cas9 induces a p53-mediated DNA damage response and cell cycle arrest. Transient inhibition of p53 prevents this response, and increases the rate of homologous recombination more than five-fold. This provides a way to improve precision genome editing of normal cells, but warrants caution in using CRISPR for human therapies until the mechanism of the activation of p53 is elucidated.