Year 3

The goal of this grant is to generate cell lines from mouse neurons in order to learn how to produce the best possible models of neurological disease. Neurons do not divide and neurons from adults cannot be grown in a dish so very little is known about the genomes of neurons. We have developed reprogramming methods to generate cell lines from neurons and we have established methods to perform whole genome sequencing of pluripotent cell lines that establish whether mutations derive from donor cells or arose during reprogramming. By combining these methods we will be able to survey the genomes of neurons and determine whether it is important to use neurons as sources to generate cell lines for disease modeling.