Neurodevelopmental disorders present a significant healthcare burden worldwide and the treatments available focus on alleviating children’s symptoms. Our goal is to use stem cells to generate brain organoids, complex 3D neural tissues that recapitulate aspects of human brain development, to investigate and find new therapeutic interventions for brain disorders of developmental origin.
Impact
The lack of effective therapies for neurodevelopmental disorders is largely due to the scarce understanding of human brain development. Brain organoids offer a great opportunity to understand how our brain is built and how alterations during this process cause neurodevelopmental disorders. This knowledge is fundamental for developing new effective therapies for these conditions.
reNEW research
We have established advanced brain organoid models of the developing cerebral cortex, a region that is crucial for cognitive functions distinctive to humans. By using these models and cutting-edge technologies, we have begun to uncover developmental defects associated with complex neurodevelopmental disorders, highlighting the value of brain organoids to identify new therapies for these diseases.
Image description
The image shows 3D brain organoid that model the Sotos syndrome (a developmental condition), displaying increased newborn neurons (green) originating from neural progenitors (red).
Credits
Maria Giovanna Garone and Anna Leichter.
Silvia Velasco Lab (reNEW Melbourne).
