A germline- and promoter-independent strategy to gain access to all cell types in the brain

项目摘要 大脑中大量细胞类型的异质性对我们的理解提出了重大挑战 大脑是如何工作的以及我们对神经系统疾病的治疗。随着高通量技术的惊人进步 测序技术，我们对大脑中无数细胞类型的分子构成的知识， 达到了前所未有的水平。然而，工具，使我们能够轻松地研究任何细胞类型的功能， 我们的选择是滞后的。我们提出的研究目标是开发产生这种工具的技术。在 为了靶向特定的细胞类型，目前的方法通常依赖于遗传修饰的动物模型， 其是费力的、昂贵的和低通量的，或者是明确的和小的细胞类型特异性启动子，其仍然 仍然难以分离。在这里，我们建议开发一种基于AAV的细胞类型特异性靶向 （ACTSTar）系统，使人们能够轻松访问任何物种大脑中的任何细胞类型， 种系修饰和启动子分离和表征。我们计划建立一个ACTSTar库 驱动程序针对小鼠和绒猴中50种不同的脑细胞类型。此外，为了减少脱靶 与长期Cas9表达相关的整合和神经炎症，特别是在长期 在灵长类动物的实验中，我们将开发一种新的AAV-衣壳介导的Cas9 mRNA递送系统，用于瞬时表达Cas9 mRNA。 Cas9表达。这个项目将产生急需的工具，方便地访问任何脑细胞类型， 多个物种我们的研究目标将通过MPI团队在基因组方面的互补专业知识来促进 编辑和开发安全的Cas9递送方法（Lu），小鼠大脑的神经回路功能（Lin），以及 使用非人类灵长类动物（Hu）的视觉功能。

Project summary The heterogeneity from the vast number of cell types in the brain presents a major challenge in our understanding of how brain works and in our treatment of neurological disorders. With the amazing advances in high throughput sequencing technology, our knowledge on the molecular makeup of the myriad cell types in the brain has reached an unprecedented level. However, tools that allow us to easily study the functions of any cell types of our choice are lagging. The goal of our proposed research is to develop technology to generate such tools. In order to target a specific cell type, current approaches typically depend on genetically modified animal models, which is laborious, costly, and low throughput, or well-defined and small cell-type-specific promoters, which still remain to be difficult to isolate. Here we propose to develop an AAV-based Cell-Type-Specific Targeting (ACTSTar) system to enable easy access to any cell type in the brain in any species that is independent of germline modification and promoter isolation and characterization. We plan to generate a library of ACTSTar drivers to target 50 different brain cell types in the mouse and marmoset. In addition, to reduce off-target integration and neuroinflammation associated with long-term Cas9 expression, especially in long-term experiments in primates, we will develop a novel AAV-capsid mediated Cas9 mRNA delivery system for transient Cas9 expression. This project will generate the much-needed tools for easy access to any brain cell types in multiple species. Our research goal will be facilitated by the complementary expertise of the MPI team in genome editing and developing safe Cas9 delivery methods (Lu), neural circuit functions of the mouse brain (Lin), and visual functions using non-human primates (Hu).