Viral Service: Caltech Systemic Capsids
As part of our Viral Service, Addgene is distributing ready-to-use viral preparations in engineered systemic serotypes from the Viviana Gradinaru laboratory and the Caltech CLOVER Center. As part of our standard viral production, these viral vectors undergo quality control, including AAV titering by probe-based droplet digital PCR, in vitro and (when possible) in vivo testing, and full sequencing of the final viral vector preparation.
Systemic Delivery AAV Capsid Choice
Need help deciding which capsid to choose? The following decision tree was developed at the CLOVER Center at Caltech and can help guide your decision.

Your choice could depend on several factors including: the delivery method, mouse strain, target cell type or tissue of interest, and model organism under study. *Many engineered AAVs for mice use LY6A to cross the blood-brain barrier, leading to strain-specific tropism (See S3 table (Huang, et al., 2019) for LY6A-permissive mouse strains). AAV-PHP.eC, AAV9-X1.1 and AAV1-X1 do not display strain-specific tropism and can be used in LY6A-nonpermissive mouse strains. **AAV1-X1 has not been tested in rats. Abbreviations: AAV, adeno-associated virus; GRE, gene regulatory element; NHP, non-human primate. Image courtesy of the Gradinaru Lab and the Caltech CLOVER Center and was adapted from Challis et al. (2022).
Text version of the AAV decision tree can be found at the bottom of this page.
For more in depth descriptions of each serotype, check out Addgene's blog on Systemic Capsids. To review performance data of each of these serotypes, please refer to Addgene’s Data Hub and the Caltech CLOVER Center’s repository of published capsid use.
PHP.eB
These viral vector preparations were produced with the pUCmini-iCAP-PHP.eB plasmid (Addgene #103005).
Note on PHP.eB tropism and specific mouse lines: Enhanced CNS tropism exhibited by the PHP.eB serotype has been reported to occur by using the cellular receptor LY6A (DOI 538421) to cross the blood brain barrier. For information on whether the PHP.eB serotype will work in your mouse line, see Supplementary Table 3.
Browse Available PHP.eB AAV
ID | Name | Promoter | Description | Category | PI |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Controls | |||||
28306 | pAAV-FLEX-tdTomato | CAG | tdTomato, Cre-dependent | Control | Boyden |
37825 | pAAV-CAG-GFP | CAG | GFP | Control | Boyden |
59462 | pAAV-CAG-tdTomato | CAG | tdTomato | Control | Boyden |
83900 | pAAV-mDlx-GFP-Fishell-1 | Dlx | GFP | Control | Fishell |
104055 | pAAV-CAG-eYFP | CAG | EYFP | Control | Gradinaru |
104061 | CAG-NLS-GFP | CAG | NLS-GFP | Control | Gradinaru |
117382 | hSyn1-eYFP | Syn | EYFP | Control | Gradinaru |
135630 | pAAV-S5E2-dTom-nlsdTom | E2 regulatory element | dTomato | Control | Dimidschstein |
135631 | pAAV-S5E2-GFP-fGFP | E2 regulatory element | GFP, membrane-targeted GFP | Control | Dimidschstein |
163505 | CN1390-rAAV-DLX2.0-minBG-SYFP2-WPRE3-BGHpA | minBetaGlobin | SYFP2 | Control | Ting |
163509 | CN1839-rAAV-hSyn1-SYFP2-10aa-H2B-WPRE3-BGHpA | hSyn1 | H2B-SYFP2 | Control | Ting |
Chemogenetics | |||||
44361 | pAAV-hSyn-DIO-hM3D(Gq)-mCherry | Syn | Activator, Cre-dependent | DREADD | Roth |
44362 | pAAV-hSyn-DIO-hM4D(Gi)-mCherry | Syn | Inhibitor, Cre-dependent | DREADD | Roth |
135635 | pAAV-S5E2-Gq-P2A-dTomato | E2 regulatory element | Activator | DREADD | Dimidschstein |
Biosensors | |||||
104491 | pGP-AAV-syn-FLEX-jGCaMP7s-WPRE | Syn | Calcium sensor, Cre-dependent | GCaMP | Kim, GENIE |
104492 | pGP-AAV-syn-FLEX-jGCaMP7f-WPRE | Syn | Calcium sensor, Cre-dependent | GCaMP | Kim, GENIE |
104487 | pGP-AAV-syn-jGCaMP7s-WPRE | Syn | Calcium sensor | GCaMP | Kim, GENIE |
104488 | pGP-AAV-syn-jGCaMP7f-WPRE | Syn | Calcium sensor | GCaMP | Kim, GENIE |
135632 | pAAV-S5E2-GCaMP6f | E2 regulatory element | Calcium sensor | GCaMP | Dimidschstein |
100854 | pAAV.Syn.NES-jRGECO1a.WPRE.SV40 | Syn | Calcium sensor | RGECO | Kim, GENIE |
Optogenetics | |||||
26973 | pAAV-hSyn-hChR2(H134R)-EYFP | Syn | Activator | ChR2 | Deisseroth |
20298 | pAAV-EF1a-double floxed-hChR2(H134R)-EYFP-WPRE-HGHpA | EF1a | Activator, Cre-dependent | ChR2 | Deisseroth |
127090 | pAAV-CAG-DIO-ChR2(H134R)-eYFP | CAG | Activator, Cre-dependent | ChR2 | Gradinaru |
135633 | pAAV-S5E2-C1V1-eYFP | E2 regulatory element | Activator | C1V1 | Dimidschstein |
135634 | pAAV-S5E2-ChR2-mCherry | E2 regulatory element | Activator | ChR2 | Dimidschstein |
Recombinases | |||||
105540 | pENN.AAV.hSyn.HI.eGFP-Cre.WPRE.SV40 | Syn | Cre-EGFP expression | Cre | Wilson |
105550 | pAAV.GFAP.Cre.WPRE.hGH | GFAP | Cre-expression | Cre | Wilson |
140135 | pAAV-EF1a-iCreV | EF1a | light-inducible recombinase | iCreV | Zeng |
140136 | pAAV-EF1a-iDreV | EF1a | light-inducible recombinase | iDreV | Zeng |
140137 | pAAV-EF1a-iFlpV | EF1a | light-inducible recombinase | iFlpV | Zeng |
164450 | CN1851-rAAV-hI56i-minBglobin-iCre-4X2C-WPRE3-BGHpA | minBetaGlobin | iCre expression | Cre | Ting |
PHP.S
These viral vector preparations were produced with the pUCmini-iCAP-PHP.S plasmid (Addgene #103006).
Browse Available PHP.S AAV
ID | Name | Promoter | Description | Category | PI |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
28306 | pAAV-FLEX-tdTomato | CAG | tdTomato, Cre-dependent | Control | Boyden |
59462 | pAAV-CAG-tdTomato | CAG | tdTomato | Control | Boyden |
PHP.V1
These viral vector preparations were produced with the pUCmini-iCAP-PHP.V1 plasmid (Addgene #127847).
Browse Available PHP.V1 AAV
ID | Name | Promoter | Description | Category | PI |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
104052 | pAAV-CAG-DIO-EYFP | CAG | EYFP, Cre-dependent | Control | Gradinaru |
MaCPNS1
These viral vector preparations were produced with the pUCmini-iCAP-AAV.MaCPNS1 plasmid (Addgene #185136).
Browse Available MaCPNS1 AAV
ID | Name | Promoter | Description | Category | PI |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
37825 | pAAV-CAG-GFP | CAG | GFP | Control | Boyden |
MaCPNS2
These viral vector preparations were produced with the pUCmini-iCAP-AAV.MaCPNS2 plasmid (Addgene #185137).
Browse Available MaCPNS2 AAV
ID | Name | Promoter | Description | Category | PI |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
37825 | pAAV-CAG-GFP | CAG | GFP | Control | Boyden |
CAP-B10
These viral vector preparations were produced with the pUCmini-iCAP-AAV.CAP-B10 plasmid (Addgene #175004).
Browse Available CAP-B10 AAV
ID | Name | Promoter | Description | Category | PI |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
37825 | pAAV-CAG-GFP | CAG | GFP | Control | Boyden |
CAP-B22
These viral vector preparations were produced with the pUCmini-iCAP-AAV.CAP-B22 plasmid (Addgene #175005).
Browse Available CAP-B22 AAV
ID | Name | Promoter | Description | Category | PI |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
37825 | pAAV-CAG-GFP | CAG | GFP | Control | Boyden |
Citation Information
When using the Caltech serotypes in future publications, please acknowledge Viviana Gradinaru and cite as follows:
- PHP.eB, PHP.S: Chan et al., 2017 Pubmed 28671695
- PHP.V1: Kumar et al., 2020 Pubmed 32313222
- MaCPNS1, MaCPNS2: Chen et al., 2022 Pubmed 35643078
- CAP-B10, CAP-B22: Goertsen, Flytzanis, et al., 2022 Pubmed 34887588
Don’t See What You’re Looking For?
Please let us know what you would like to see available in viral format. Please note this does not guarantee viral service, but lets us know what viruses would be helpful to the scientific community.
Text Description for the AAV Decision Tree
The AAV decision tree graphic above helps you choose the best capsid for your cell type. First, do you want to target CNS or PNS? Then consider species, and then cell type.
For CNS:
- For infant rhesus macaques:
- Broad tropism - AAV.MaCPNS1, AAV.MaCPNS2
- Cell type-biased:
- Neurons - AAV.CAP-Mac, AAV9-X1.1
- For marmosets:
- Broad tropism - AAV.CAP-B22
- Cell type-biased:
- Neurons - AAV.CAP-B10
- Brain vascular cells - AAV.CAP-Mac
- For rats:
- Broad tropism - AAV-PHP.eB
- Cell type-biased:
- Neurons - AAV.CAP-Mac
- Brain vascular cells - AAV9-X1.1, AAV1-X1
- For mice:
- Broad tropism - AAV-PHP.eB, AAV-PHP.AX, AAV-PHP.eC
- Cell type-biased:
- Astrocytes - AAV-PHP.AX with GRE or transgenic animal
- Oligodendrocytes - AAV-PHP.eB with GRE or transgenic animal
- Brain vascular cells - AAV9-X1.1, AAV1-X1
- Neurons - AAV.CAP-B10, AAV-PHP.N
- Broad - AAV-PHP.AX with GRE or transgenic animal
- L5 & Inhibitory - AAV-PHP.eB with GRE or transgenic animal
- L2/3 & L4 - AAV.CAP-B10 with GRE or transgenic animal
- Excitatory - AAV.PHP.N with GRE or transgenic animal
For PNS applications in rodents and NHPs:
- Broad tropism - AAV-MaCPNS2, AAV-PHP.S
- Sensory nervous system - AAV-MaCPNS1