News

What if every cell in your brain had its own unique genome that permanently records its history, its sibling cells, its age, the effects of disease, and its struggle for survival? How would that change the way we think about aging and degeneration in the brain? Christopher Walsh discusses these questions in light of two new studies from his lab and collaborating groups.

Amar Sahay shares his lab’s discovery that many ultra-high confidence risk genes for autism, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and epilepsy may be regulators of experience-dependent plasticity of inhibitory neurons in the hippocampus of adult mice. Proof-of-concept experiments reveal that targeting one of these regulators can improve cognition and suppress seizures in a common mouse model of neurodevelopmental disorder risk.

Nuria Domínguez-Iturza and Paola Arlotta present new research describing the molecular signals that promote myelination in the cerebral cortex and show that these signals are expressed at varying levels across neuronal types. Their findings reveal how neuronal diversity shapes myelin development, providing new insights into brain development and disease.

The new grant establishes the Human Developmental Neurobiology Hub, to be co-led by Paola Arlotta (Harvard) and Nenad Sestan (Yale). The team — which includes Marinka Zitnik (Harvard Medical School) — will focus on understanding and mapping how the human brain develops at the neural, cellular, genetic, and molecular levels to understand the divergences that occur in children with autism.

In a new milestone for stem cell research, new research from Paola Arlotta and colleagues, co-first authors Irene Faravelli and Noelia Antón-Bolañosa, sets the record for keeping alive lab-grown human brain “organoids” and proven that they mimic key developmental stages seen in living people.

Round up of awards and honors earned by the HBI community.