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Absent forebrain replaced by embryonic stem cells

A new technique, in which forebrain-precursor cells are ablated from early-stage mouse embryos and replaced with embryonic stem cells, promises to facilitate our ability to study the central nervous system.
  1. Jimena Andersen

    1. Jimena Andersen is in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA.

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  2. Sergiu P. Pașca

    1. Sergiu P. Pașca is in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA.

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For the past few decades, it has been possible to directly manipulate an organism’s genes early in development, to generate, for example, mice that harbour genetic modifications. Such transgenic mice have been powerful model systems in which to study human disease1, but conventional approaches for generating these animals can be costly and time-consuming. Writing in Nature, Chang et al.2 describe an alternative approach to building complex mouse models with which to interrogate the function and diseases of the forebrain. The authors’ approach could also be used to produce models focused on other regions of the central nervous system (CNS).

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Nature 563, 44-45 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-06933-w

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