Unlocking the secrets of human brain development using stem cells

The goal of our research is to discover what makes us unique and how neurological disease affects us. Since we cannot easily investigate the very early developmental programs in humans, and we largely do not know when or how disease strikes, we use the directed differentiation of human stem cells as a surrogate to replay these early programs.

Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) are an amazing cell type that can give rise to any part of the body. They can self renew and give rise to nearly unlimited numbers of cells to test if we know how! One can easily edit the genome of these cells to investigate gene function or induce a mutation that might be important for a disease.

Alternatively, we can also reprogram patient’s somatic cells to an induced pluripotent state. This allows us to “replay” the development of that individual in a dish to identify disease manifestation in a number of different cell types.

Together, we aim to use hPSCs and its derivatives to understand the development of the brain, how disease affects the development and function of neuronal cells, and use of specific cell types for modeling disease and for drug screening.