Pilar Blancafort

Pilar Blancafort is an internationally recognized leader in CRISPR-based epigenome editing and functional genomic screening approaches for cancer drug target discovery. Her laboratory pioneered the use of catalytically dead Cas9 (dCas9) fused to epigenetic effector domains (KRAB, LSD1, DNMT3A, p300, TET) as programmable tools to interrogate the functional roles of specific genomic regulatory elements — enhancers, silencers, and promoters — in cancer cells at scale. These CRISPRi and CRISPRa screens have mapped oncogenic transcriptional dependencies, identified previously uncharacterized non-coding regulatory vulnerabilities, and nominated epigenetic regulators as drug targets. Blancafort has applied these tools to triple-negative breast cancer and castration-resistant prostate cancer, identifying transcription factor dependencies and enhancer addictions that converge on druggable chromatin regulators including BRD4, EZH2, and LSD1. Her work integrating CRISPR functional screens with single-cell multiomics has revealed cell-state plasticity mechanisms underlying therapy resistance, with direct implications for combination strategies targeting cancer cell reprogramming. She has authored over 130 publications and has received competitive international funding to translate CRISPR-based drug target discoveries toward precision therapeutic strategies.