Federal Project Grant Summary

The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center received a $655,557 Project Grant award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) under the Extramural Research Programs in the Neurosciences and Neurological Disorders program (CFDA 93.853), effective May 4, 2026, through February 28, 2031. This award supports research utilizing interspecies blastocyst complementation (IBC), a novel technique that introduces donor pluripotent stem cells into host blastocysts to generate donor-cell-enriched organs within host organisms. The research specifically focuses on developing rat forebrain tissue in mice using a CRISPR-based blastocyst complementation method, enabling investigations into brain development and evolution from a xenogeneic perspective.

The project deliverables encompass three primary research objectives: (1) elucidating xenogeneic barriers affecting brain development between mice and rats by investigating cell competition, proliferation differences, and cell adhesion incompatibility; (2) exploring non-cell autonomous mechanisms through multi-omics analyses to understand how rat-mouse chimeras adapt brain size and developmental pace; and (3) expanding complementation studies to wild rodent species, specifically attempting to generate forebrain tissues from African pygmy mice in mice hosts. These research activities will advance fundamental understanding of brain development and evolution while establishing ethical foundations for potential future applications of human pluripotent stem cells in animal brain research.