# Genetic Engineering Core

> **NIH NIH U19** · UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH · 2024 · $334,902

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY GENETIC ENGINEERING CORE (GEC)
The overall goal of the Genetic Engineering Core (GEC) is to support the needs of MARMO-AD
by providing services to (1) genetically engineer marmosets using CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing,
(2) develop and optimize enabling technologies for germline gene editing in marmoset, and (3)
create fibroblast cell lines and differentiate them into induce neuronal stem cells and neurons.
The common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) is a New World non-human primate with numerous
practical advantages in biomedical research and is quickly becoming a much sought-after model
organism by the neuroscience community. The rapidly growing appreciation of marmoset
neurobiology is synergizing with contemporaneous advances in gene editing techniques to
make marmosets the genetically engineered non-human primate of choice for understanding
brain function and to study brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s Disease. The GEC will provide
all services required to use CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing to produce novel genetically engineered
marmosets that harbor human high-risk alleles for early and late onset Alzheimer’s disease.
While creating these gene-edited animals, the GEC will simultaneously develop and optimize
enabling technologies for efficient germline gene editing. These technologies include novel
methods of ovarian stimulation to enhance production of mature marmoset oocytes, and novel
approaches to reduce mosaicism in gene edited marmosets. Improved technologies will reduce
the cost and increase the speed at which genetically engineered marmosets can be produced
while also reducing animal numbers. Lastly, the GEC will produce marmoset fibroblast cell lines
and differentiate them into induced neuronal stem cells and neurons. Cell lines will be used to
create DNA sequencing libraries and for in vitro phenotypic characterization of gene edited
animals in support of the Project goals.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10899737
- **Project number:** 5U19AG074866-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH
- **Principal Investigator:** Gregg E. Homanics
- **Activity code:** U19 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $334,902
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2022-09-01 → 2027-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10899737

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10899737, Genetic Engineering Core (5U19AG074866-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10899737. Licensed CC0.

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