# Cellular and Tissue Pathogenesis

> **NIH NIH P50** · BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE · 2024 · $214,914

## Abstract

Intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDDs) are common and have a devastating impact on child health
around the world. Unfortunately, there are no effective treatments for the vast majority of IDDs and our
understanding of the pathogenic mechanism for majority of IDDs is incomplete. A major impediment to solving
how to better treat IDDs is our limited knowledge of how cells and tissues are impacted in each IDD. As a
direct response to this problem, we have assembled the Cell and Tissue Pathogenesis Core (CTP Core) to
study how brain anatomy and its associated pathologies arise. Our guiding rationale is that, solving how brain
structure is wired in typical development will place us in an ideal position to uncover how faulty brain circuits
eventually disrupt the ability to perform different behaviors in IDDs. Indeed, the pathological consequences of
altering brain development typically present as severe motor or cognitive difficulties in children. The goal of the
CTP Core is to provide our IDDRC Investigators with a centralized resource for comprehensive pathological
examination of tissue, high-resolution two-photon and confocal imaging, ultra-structure tracking by electron
microcopy, and the generation and characterization of human disease cellular models that are relevant to
IDDs. By combining human cellular models, such as iPSC-derived neurons or glia, with deep structural and
functional phenotyping of how the brain is mis-wired in different diseases or disease models, the CTP Core will
provide a unique opportunity to address how distinct genetic and environmental factors may impact the brain
and lead to alterations in cellular structure, connectivity and function. To accomplish these goals, we have
divided the CTP Core into three sub-Cores that operate in parallel, but with the common goal of resolving brain
structure as it relates to function and disease. The Neuropathology Sub-Core provides expertise in neuronal
tissue analysis from basic histology and transmission electron microscopy to in-depth circuit analysis; the
Microscopy Sub-Core provides access and training to state-of-the-art confocal and two-photon microscopy;
and the Human Disease Cellular Models Sub-Core provides expertise for studies requiring reprogramming,
characterization and genome editing of human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and their progeny
derived from IDD patients. Therefore, a major feature of the CTP Core is investigator access to both classic
and modern analytical techniques using human tissue, in vivo model systems such as mouse, rat, drosophila,
and in vitro assays such as 3-dimensional brain organoids and neurons and glia derived from human iPSCs.
The ultimate goal of the CTP Core is to forge new avenues to improve the behavioral outcomes of IDD by
correcting brain function and restoring various motor and cognitive functions. The availability of major
equipment such as transmission and two-photon microscopes, existing effective workflow of servic...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10915510
- **Project number:** 5P50HD103555-05
- **Recipient organization:** BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
- **Principal Investigator:** Roy Vincent Sillitoe
- **Activity code:** P50 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $214,914
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-07-22 → 2027-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10915510

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10915510, Cellular and Tissue Pathogenesis (5P50HD103555-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10915510. Licensed CC0.

---

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