CRISPR/Cas9 enabled study of cis-regulatory regions of the NPY gene (360G-Wellcome-207169_Z_17_Z)

NPY is a neuropeptide, expressed in the hypothalmus, which known to be involved in appetite regulation. Although little is known about the regulation of the NPY gene preliminary studies in the MacKenzie lab have identified highly conserved enhancers around the NPY locus many of which drive reporter gene expression in mouse hypothalamus. Dr Mackenzie's lab has recently carried out CRISPR based knockouts of regions of the NPY locus in mice and wish to study the affect on mouse feeding patterns and NPY gene expression in order to further characterise the enhancers controlling NPY. This will initially involve the use of in situ hybridisation and Qrt-PCR on tissues derived from genome edited mice from which candidate NPY enhancer regions have been ablated. Understanding the regulation of this gene will bring us significantly closer to understanding the factors affecting appetite, increased food intake and obesity.