# Homeobox Genes and Neuron Identity Control on a Brain-Wide Level

> **NIH NIH R01** · COLUMBIA UNIV NEW YORK MORNINGSIDE · 2024 · $368,778

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
While common, evolutionarily conserved themes of early neuronal patterning in the developing
embryo have emerged over the years, there are, as of now, no firmly proven, common organizational
themes for how neuron acquire and maintain their terminally differentiated state. We propose to
probe here existence of such a common organizational principle, by testing the hypothesis that each
neuron class of the nematode C. elegans is functionally specified by members of a specific family of
transcription factors, the homeodomain-type transcription factors. We test this hypothesis by using
rigorous genetic loss of function analysis, using mutant alleles of all 70 conserved homeobox genes
and using a multicolor bar coding scheme, through which we visualize the differentiated state of all
neurons throughout the nervous system. The finding that homeodomain transcription factors control
the identity of all neurons in a simple nervous system would have wide-ranging implications for our
understanding of evolution of the nervous system and may provide explicit directions for how to
classify and then functionally study neuron classes in mammalian nervous systems.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10866589
- **Project number:** 5R01NS039996-24
- **Recipient organization:** COLUMBIA UNIV NEW YORK MORNINGSIDE
- **Principal Investigator:** Oliver Hobert
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $368,778
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2001-04-01 → 2027-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10866589

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10866589, Homeobox Genes and Neuron Identity Control on a Brain-Wide Level (5R01NS039996-24). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10866589. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*