Paola Arlotta, PhD
Professor
Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology
Harvard University
Development of the Cerebral Cortex: From the Embryo To Brain Organoids
While science has made important steps towards an understanding of the functions and development of the brain, there is still a great deal to discover. The development of the brain, and the many ways that development can be altered, is still a main focus of research. Doctor Arlotta discussed her work using brain organoids (three-dimensional cell cultures that mimic the human brain) created with stem cells. These organoids are used by her lab to examine the basis of neurodevelopmental disorders.
Much remains to be understood regarding the cellular and molecular principles that govern the development of the mammalian brain, and how these events are affected in neurodevelopmental disease. Focusing on the cerebral cortex, Doctor Arlotta covered material on the identification of molecular mechanisms underlying developmental generation of neuronal diversity and discussed how diversification of cortical neurons plays a critical role in controlling cortical assembly, in vivo. Building on this developmental work in the mouse, she then introduced the challenges and opportunities of modeling human brain development in the dish, from pluripotent stem cells within 3-D human brain organoids, and the promise that organoids offer to understand complex neurodevelopmental disease. She discussed some recent work on the generation and long-term development of human brain organoids; their developmental trajectory, cellular diversity and neuronal network features.