Editing the Brain @ University of Maryland School of Medicine
Congratulations to JaNýa Brown, who’s team won the grand prize at the 2024 D.C. Public Health Case Challenge at the National Academy of Medicine!!! Their proposal “Guiding Resilience and Offering Wellness (GROW)” came in at the top of this year’s competition on “A Public Health Approach to Address Substance Use and Mental Health Concerns Among Emerging Adults in the DMV Area”. Read all about it in the linked press release by the NAM!
Congrats to all involved in obtaining funding from the Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund. Our lab, in collaboration with the Ivy Dick lab, was awarded a 2-year MSCRF Launch grant titled “iPSC Platforms to Develop Genome Restoration Strategies Using Cas9-RC“.
The first study, led by the Mackis Lab at Harvard University and featured in Cell Reports, develops an approach for delivering genes, including Cas9, to select neural populations by in utero electroporation. This method achieves internally-controlled mosaicism that facilitates phenotype discovery in the developing brain.
The second paper, from the Suk Lab at UMSOM and published in ACS Nano, demonstrates our ability to target Cas9 mRNA to select foci in the adult brain. This was achieved through systemic delivery using lipid nanoparticles, coupled with localized targeting by microbubble-mediated focused ultrasound. This non-viral strategy represents a significant advance in treating adult brain disorders by enabling focal genome editing directly in the adult brain.
Together, these studies represent substantial progress in non-viral CRISPR delivery methods for both developing and adult brains. By expanding the in vivo CRISPR toolkit, we are laying the groundwork for the development of neural somatic cell genome editing as future genomic therapeutics.
Congratulations Luciano and Gijung!
Andrea Romanowski successfully defends her PhD work on developing CRIPSR tools for gene knockin in the embryonic rodent brain. Her unique combination of expertise in developmental neuroscience and in vivo genome editing got her recruited to the National Institutes of Mental Health in Bethesda, where she will do a postdoc in the lab of James Bourne!
Congratulations Andrea!!!
Our paper with Gene Blatt in Journal of Comparative Neurology on the evolution of neuroanatomical tracing methods came out today with Cheryl’s beautiful electroporated, cleared, and light sheet imaged hippocampus gracing the cover, alongside Dee Pandya’s India Ink traces. Happy New Year everyone!
Corinne Martin was awarded a 2023 national Goldwater Scholarship!!! We couldn’t be prouder of her! Corinne spent two years as an NSIP intern in the lab, critically working on Pegassist and researching the links between brain development and brain cancer. Corinne’s ideas spawned new paths of investigation on how common cellular pathways in development get aberrantly reactivated in tumor cells. With a Goldwater scholarship, we are all excited to see the new frontiers Corinne will take on at the forefront of biomedical research! Congratulations Corinne!!!
https://eng.umd.edu/news/story/two-umd-bioengineering-majors-named-2023-goldwater-scholars
Follow our science at the 4 PouLab posters at SfN 2022 in San Diego!
Cheryl Brandenburg on Monday morning (Y5):
“Light sheet mapping of parvalbumin subtypes of Purkinje cells using in vivo CRISPR strategies“
Colin Robertson on Monday afternoon (YY36):
“Neural somatic genome editing in the brain for personalized patient models“
Garrett Bunce and Ro Whitten on Wednesday morning (B31):
“The novel gene Ganon-1 produces a scaffolding RNA for growth signaling in developing axon projections“
Andrea Romanowski on Wednesday morning (C45):
“Mosaic Cas9 fusions to investigate cortical wiring by IgLON schizophrenia risk-genes in the rodent brain”
See you all at #SFN2022
Garrett hosts NOVA’s Halal on the Lawn, then gives a talk on the lncRNA he discovered; Andrea does supply runs, then gives a talk on multiplexing schizophrenia risk genes with CRISPR; Elise handles donation logistics, and attends both talks! And at the end of a good day’s work, the lab celebrates Alex’s birthday.
PouLab postdoc Cheryl Brandenburg was awarded a 2021 Autism Research Institute (ARI) grant for her work on “Cerebellar Circuits in 3D: Screening autism-associated genes in cleared brains with in utero CRISPR genome editing“. Congratulations Cheryl!!! Here is just a snippet of the mind-bending 3D cerebellar circuits from Cheryl’s in vivo edited Purkinje cells…!
