Stephen Jameson to employ CRISPR/Cas genome editing in memory T-cell studies to track where the cells reside in experimental mice.

Steve Jameson was awarded a five-year $1.25M (direct costs) R01 from NIAID, a renewal of his long-term research grant that was recently supported through an NIH MERIT award. The award supports studies in mice using novel gene expression manipulation techniques -- including the CRISPR/Cas 9 genome editing system (see Science: The CRISPR Revolution) -- to explore the factors that dictate whether memory T cells will become resident in tissues or circulate around the body in experimental mice.

In a forthcoming paper in Nature Jameson and David Masopust of Microbiology and Immunology describe the immune system of mice raised outside the “Specific Pathogen Free” barrier facilities that are usually used to house experimental animals and suggest that such mice may constitute a better model for understanding key aspects of the adult human immune system.