"Two years ago, I led a team conducting electrophysiological experiments on embryonic stem cell chimeric monkeys. The monkeys were borrowed from the Magic City Brain Science and Brain-Like Research Center. Do you know what kind of monkeys they were?" Xiang Xiaotong asked.
"I've read the paper. It was in an issue of Cell many years ago, right?" Song He recalled. "It was done by the Liu Zhen Sun Qiang Team—the world's first viable chimeric monkey with a high proportion of embryonic stem cells."
"Exactly. The defining characteristic of these monkeys is that, aside from the fertilized egg's genome, many of the cells making up their bodies are externally introduced stem cells. They come from the same species, but their genomes aren't completely identical. It's like several monkeys fused into one." Xiang Xiaotong continued rapidly.
"The advantage of using chimeric monkeys for experiments is that we can construct brain regions with significant differences. Since the DNA and cell types in different brain regions vary greatly, it's easy to find variables."
"We delivered light into the LH-Nts Neurons in the Ventral Tegmental Area, activated the γ-Aminobutyric Acid neurons, and successfully produced outward inhibitory currents..."
"Then we used CRISPR for targeted inactivation and conducted real-time location-preference behavioral tests. Light stimulation promoted a preference for the light-matched region. We found that inactivating either of two genes had no effect on this preference..."
"The final result was that the joint release of Neurotransmitters and Neuropeptides acted on different cells at different times, working together to influence the activity of the entire brain-cell circuit!"
"Do you understand?" Xiang Xiaotong asked.
"I understand!" Song He responded quickly, his face lighting up with delight. "That helps tremendously, Teacher Xiang. With your research as a foundation, I can work without holding back! So you didn't specifically study the Neuropeptide