Human ESC-Derived Chimeric Mouse Models of Huntington’s Disease Reveal Cell-Intrinsic Defects in Glial Progenitor Cell Differentiation

Osipovitch M, Asenjo Martinez A, Mariani JN, Cornwell A, Dhaliwal S, Zou L, Chandler-Militello D, Wang S, Li X, Benraiss SJ, Agate R, Lampp A, Benraiss A, Windrem MS, Goldman SA; Cell Stem Cell. 2019 Jan 3;24(1):107-122.e7. doi: 10.1016/j.stem.2018.11.010

In the latest issue of Cell Stem Cell, Osipovitch et al. present compelling evidence suggesting the pathology of ESC-derived glial cells may be a driver of Huntington’s disease phenotype. Genialis is proud to support this groundbreaking research, and other projects at the Center for Translational Neuromedicine (CTN) between the University of Copenhagen Faculty of Health and Medical Science and University of Rochester Medical Center. Among their research aims is the goal to ameliorate diseases such as Huntington’s disease by inducing neurogenesis for cell replacement in patients. In this study, RNA-seq analysis of glial progenitor cells derived from mutant Huntington mouse embryos (mHTT) showed mutant cells have markedly lower expression of transcription factors associated with glial differentiation and myelin synthesis.

Genialis provides end-to-end RNA-seq data management, analysis, and visualization. Data from this and other CTN projects are analyzed by and hosted for public exploration on our cloud-based platform.

Nice work Mikhail and company!