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The Pleiades Promoter Project (UBC, led by Dr. Elizabeth M. Simpson) continues to develop MiniPromoters (MiniP) for region- and cell-specific expression in the brain, spinal cord and eye. These Pleiades MiniPromoters are available in vectors for ‘knock-in’, ESCs and mice to drive gene expression in defined brain regions for study of brain disorders, including:
These Pleiades MiniPromoters may also find application in important gene therapy and/or cell therapy applications, allowing exquisite control of expression in specific cell types or brain regions. Within Pleiades, 300+ promoters have been designed from 50+ brain region specific genes. Over 170 ‘knock-in’ mouse strains have been developed, with 32 novel expression patterns characterized. Selected MiniP are described in Portales-Casamar et al., 2010 (PNAS 107:16589-15594), and selected mouse strains are available through The Jackson Laboratories (www.jax.org). |
The goal of CanEuCre is to develop and expand the suite of "cre resources" for the brain by creating cre-driver tools - vectors, ES cells, mice, and viruses - that drive expression of cre recombinase in a cell-type or brain-region specific fashion. The cre-driver tools will be an important resource for researchers and companies with particular applications in:
CanEuCre is currently developing Pleiades MiniPromoters for initial cre-driver tool development. Additional carefully selected gene promoters are also being developed as cre-drivers. The pipeline for tool development is continuing to be expanded, and input from industrial collaborators is encouraged. CanEuCre is part of an international consortium involving KOMP (Knockout Mouse Project), EUCOMM (EU Conditional Mouse Mutagenesis) and NorCOMM (North American Conditional Mutagenesis, Canada).
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The Pleiades Promoter Project and CanEuCre have been supported primarily through funding from Genome Canada and Genome British Columbia.
