Kwanghun Chung, Ph.D., at Massachusetts Institute of Technology will utilize a new genetic manipulation technique called CRISPR to better understand how the brain’s architecture, neuronal connectivity, molecular machinery, and genomic network bring about mental function. Chung aims to overcome certain limitations of CRISPR technology and will use it on mouse brains to ask how genes associated with autism spectrum disorder cause functional, structural, and molecular abnormalities in a cell-type and brain region-specific manner.