Anca M. Pașca

TL;DR: A protocol adapted to xeno- and feeder-free conditions is shown to generate reliable and consistent cortical brain organoids across differentiations and source stem cell lines, making it suitable for disease modeling and other applications.

TL;DR: This protocol describes how to generate and assemble subdomain-specific forebrain spheroids, also known as brain region–specific organoids, from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), and combines them in vitro to assemble forebrain assembloids that recapitulate the interactions of glutamatergic and GABAergic neurons seen in vivo.

TL;DR: In this paper, the activity of gene-regulatory elements was mapped to identify genomic regions crucial to corticogenesis, generating a single-cell atlas of gene expression and chromatin accessibility both independently and jointly.

TL;DR: Brain organoids derived from human iPSCs are used to study the effects of hypoxia on early cortical neurodevelopment and identify defects in specific human progenitor populations that likely contribute to encephalopathy of prematurity.

TL;DR: Lysosome dysfunction is a shared feature of rare lysosomal storage diseases and common age-related neurodegenerative diseases as mentioned in this paper, and microglia, the brain-resident macrophages, are particularly vulnerable.