General
Much remains unknown regarding the mechanisms governing mammalian brain development. Focusing on the cerebral cortex, Dr. Arlotta will present data on the mechanistic principles that control the developmental generation of cellular diversity in the embryo and consider to what extent processes of cortical development can be replicated outside the embryo, within brain organoids. She will then consider how genetic and environmental factors affect the human developing brain to ultimately cause disease. Emerging evidence indicates that similar disease risk factors are associated with distinct phenotypic outcomes depending on genomic context; such that different individuals show heterogeneous responses to negative stimuli. She will discuss progress in developing human brain organoids that are capable of reproducible, multi-donor development of the forebrain (they have named such organoids: “Chimeroids”), and their use to investigate inter-individual variation in cellular responses to neurotoxic triggers associated with neurodevelopmental disease.
Dr. Paola Arlotta is the Golub Family Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at Harvard University. She is a principal investigator at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, and an Associate member of the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.
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Contact
It's recommended to attend the Swammerdam Lectures in person. If that is not possible, please email k.hubregtse@vu.nl