Intersectional targeting of cellular subpopulations

Conditional mutagenesis is a highly accurate form of gene targeting using the Cre/loxP system as most important method of tissue-specific gene manipulation in mice. However, this method alone was unable to target many cell subpopulations. Combining two genetic switch systems that previously had been used separately led to a major advance. Now it is possible to investigate very specific neuron subpopulations in detail.