The goal of this project is to disseminate MAPseq and BARseq to the broader neuroscience community. These are novel methods developed in my laboratory based on high-throughput DNA sequencing for determining neuronal circuitry. Neurons transmit information to distant brain regions via long-range axonal projections. In some cases, functionally distinct populations of neurons are intermingled within a small region. Disruptions of connectivity may underlie many neuropsychiatric disorders including autism and schizophrenia. At present, neuroanatomical techniques—particularly those with single neuron resolution—are expensive and labor intensive. MAPseq and BARseq convert neuroanatomy into a problem of DNA sequencing, and thereby allow us to exploit the tremendous breakthroughs in next- generation sequencing throughput. The dissemination of these high-throughput methods for determining neuronal projections will have important implications for understanding normal neuronal circuitry, and how this circuitry is disrupted in animal models of neuropsychiatric disorders like autism and schizophrenia.

The central goal of this proposal is to disseminate MAPseq and BARseq to the broader neuroscience community. The dissemination of these high-throughput methods for determining neuronal projections will enable many laboratories to use these methods to understand normal neuronal circuitry, and how this circuitry is disrupted in animal models of neuropsychiatric disorders like autism and schizophrenia.