Hosted by Cardiff University's School of Medicine

 

Abstract: The human brain sets us apart as a species, yet how it develops and functions differently to that of other mammals is still largely unclear. This also makes it difficult to understand how disorders of the brain such as neurodevelopmental defects and neurological disorders arise, and therefore how to treat them. In an effort to better understand the events that give rise to the complex human brain, we use a model system in a dish called cerebral organoids, or brain organoids. These 3D tissues are generated from pluripotent stem cells through neural differentiation and a supportive 3D microenvironment to generate organoids with the same tissue architecture as the early human fetal brain. Such organoids are allowing us to tackle questions previously impossible with more traditional approaches. Indeed, our recent findings provide insight into how the human brain becomes so large, how external stimuli can influence brain development, and how cell fate is influenced by intrinsic biases at the epigenetic level.

Bio: Dr Madeline Lancaster has been a Group Leader in the Cell Biology Division of the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB), part of the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, since 2015. Research in the Lancaster lab focuses on brain development using stem cells to generate brain organoids that allow in vitro modelling. The laboratory studies the most fundamental evolutionary differences in brain development, using human stem cells and reprogrammed cells obtained from other primates and even more distant mammalian species. So far, this work has uncovered human-specific neurodevelopmental processes leading to increased expansion and helping explain our enlarged brain size.

Madeline was awarded the 3Rs Prize by the National Centre for Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) in 2015 for her development of brain organoids, and was chosen as an EMBO Young Investigator in 2019. She was awarded the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) Dr Susan Lim Award for Outstanding Young Investigator and a Vallee Scholarship in 2021. Madeline was honoured as the Laureate for Life Sciences in the Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists in the UK and was elected an EMBO member in 2022.

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