Ha Nam Nguyen

TL;DR: A miniaturized spinning bioreactor (SpinΩ) is developed to generate forebrain-specific organoids from human iPSCs that recapitulate key features of human cortical development, including progenitor zone organization, neurogenesis, gene expression, and, notably, a distinct human-specific outer radial glia cell layer.

TL;DR: Generation of induced pluripotent stem cells that carry the p.G2019S mutation in the Leucine-Rich Repeat Kinase-2 (LRRK2) gene and their differentiation into DA neurons found that DA neurons derived from G2019S-iPSCs showed increased expression of key oxidative stress-response genes and α-synuclein protein.

TL;DR: A pan-caspase inhibitor, emricasan, inhibited ZIKV-induced increases in caspase-3 activity and protected human cortical neural progenitors in both monolayer and three-dimensional organoid cultures, and combination treatments using one compound from each category (neuroprotective and antiviral) further increased protection of human neural progensitors and astrocytes from ZIKv-induced cell death.

TL;DR: This study reveals that a psychiatric disorder relevant mutation causes synapse deficits and transcriptional dysregulation in human neurons and the findings provide new insight into the molecular and synaptic etiopathology of psychiatric disorders.

TL;DR: It is observed that human DAZL (deleted in azoospermia-like) functions in primordial germ-cell formation, whereas closely related genes DAZ and BOULE promote later stages of meiosis and development of haploid gametes.