Investigate profibrotic regulators contributing to epithelial-mesenchymal transformation and the pathogenesis of pulmonary fibrosis.. Genome-wide CRISPR/Cas9 screening identifies key profibrotic regulators of TGF-β1-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transformation and pulmonary fibrosis

The idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a lethal interstitial lung disease. IPF is characterized with excessive extracellular matrix accumulation and epithelial-mesenchymal transformation. We aim to explore new profibrotic molecular regulators mediating epithelial-mesenchymal transformation and pulmonary fibrosis. We identified 10 candidate genes and demonstrated key profibrotic regulators of epithelial-mesenchymal transformation.