Today in Nature Neuroscience we have published our exploration of neocortical development leveraging 100's of public datasets. You can interrogate the entire compendium of data at nemoanalytics.org/landing/neoc... and read the paper at www.nature.com/articles/s41....

Adaptive evolution of gene regulatory networks in mammalian neocortex - Nature The excitatory neuron diversity and specialized connectivity of complex, multilayered mammalian neocortex are driven by mammalian-specific cis-regulatory elements bound by ZBTB18, deletion of which di...

Happy to share my co-first-author paper, now published in Nature! In this work, we uncover gene regulatory networks that underlie the diversification and connectivity of excitatory neurons in the neocortex.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Human-specific features of the cerebellum and ZP2-regulated synapse development Human-specific transcriptomic and regulatory features are present in the cerebellum, with ZP2 playing a key role in synapse regulation. ZP2 expression is induced by pontine mossy fibers, leading to decreased synaptic proteins and neuronal activity, which provides insights into the evolutionary development of the human cerebellum.

Now online! Human-specific features of the cerebellum and ZP2-regulated synapse development

Tomorrow: DDD seminar, Mar. 17, 2026 @ 11AM Eastern US (NOTE EARLIER TIME TO ACCOMODATE SPEAKER IN THE UK): Dr. Andrew Basset (Wellcome Sanger Inst., Cambridge, UK) will share his recent work on "A CRISPR way to understand neurodegeneration". carlocolantuoni.org/seminar

Human-specific features of the cerebellum and ZP2-regulated synapse development Human-specific transcriptomic and regulatory features are present in the cerebellum, with ZP2 playing a key role in synapse regulation. ZP2 expression is induced by pontine mossy fibers, leading to de...

Check out this new study, led by Suel-Kee Kim, Adriana Cherskov, and Nenad Sestan, on human-specific cerebellar biology and the unexpected role of ZP2. Glad to have contributed with excellent work from Xoel Mato and Jose Manuel Ruiz.
@researchmar.bsky.social

www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Excited to share that our work is now published in Cell: Human-specific features of the cerebellum and ZP2-regulated synapse development. www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Many thanks to the Sestan lab members @yaleneuro.bsky.social and all collaborators who made this work possible.

How have concerted and mosaic evolutionary mechanisms shaped the expansion of the human cerebellum?

Our review with @tyamadat.bsky.social and @ioansarr.bsky.social available free till March 29:
authors.elsevier.com/a/1ma2wFzn7a...

NEXT TUE: DDD seminar, Feb. 17, 2026 @ 1PM Eastern US: Dr. Annerieke Sierksma (in Dr. Bart De Strooper's group at KU Leuven) will share her recent work on "Polygenic risk for Alzheimer’s disease shapes microglial inflammatory and antigen-presentation programs in vivo". carlocolantuoni.org/seminar

NEXT TUE: DDD seminar, Jan. 27, 2025 @ 1PM Eastern US: Nadezhda Azbukina @nazbukina.bsky.social (from Dr. Barbara Treutlein's group) will speak on "A systematic study of morphogen patterning and its reproducibility in human neural organoids". carlocolantuoni.org/seminar

NEXT TUE: DDD seminar, Dec. 16, 2025 @ 1PM Eastern US:
Dr. Tommy Vierbuchen @tvierbuchen.bsky.social will share his recent work on on cell villages using outbred mice: "A pluripotent stem cell platform for in vitro systems genetics studies of mouse brain development". carlocolantuoni.org/seminar

Remarkable energy at the inaugural @cshlnews.bsky.social conference on Assembloids and complex cell–cell interactions across tissues and systems
A wonderful series of talks so far highlighting advances & discoveries being made with these self-organizing systems and a few common themes are emerging

NEXT TUE: DDD seminar, Nov. 18, 2025 @ 1PM Eastern US: Continuing our focus on approaches to the study of many pluripotent stem cell lines, Dr. Michael Wells @mfwells.bsky.social will share his recent work on "cell villages". seminar info: carlocolantuoni.org/seminar [repost to spread the word]

NEXT TUE: DDD seminar, Oct. 14, 2025 @ 1PM Eastern US: Continuing our focus on variation in early fate decisions and CNS regionalization, Dr. Alex Pollen will share his recent work on cross-species midbrain dopaminergic organoids. seminar info: carlocolantuoni.org/seminar -repost to spread the word

In a new @natcomms.nature.com study, @yaleneuro.bsky.social's Nicola Micali from the Rakic lab, alongside a team of researchers @prbb.org, found that many genes 🧬 linked to mental illness 🧠 are turned ON in neural stem cells as early as the first trimester.👶

#aECM (apical extracellular matrix) is a subset of #ECMatrix that is distinct from stromal matrices or basement membranes. Anybody out there studying #mucins #ZPproteins #cuticle #glycocalyx #surfactant or the like? We need to find each other and start talking!

There is so much cool #aECM work going on but most of the researchers don’t know or talk to each other; this is an attempt to change that! Link below

Human-specific features of the cerebellum and ZP2-regulated synapse development Understanding the unique features of the human brain compared to non-human primates has long intrigued humankind. The cerebellum refines motor coordination and cognitive functions, contributing to the...

Excited to share our recent study on human-specific features of the cerebellum and the unexpected, novel role of zona pellucida protein 2 (ZP2) in synapse development. Grateful to the Sestan lab and all our collaborators for their outstanding contributions. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

NEXT TUE: DDD seminar, Sept. 16, 2025 @ 1PM Eastern US:
Continuing our focus on early fate decisions and CNS regionalization, next Tuesday Sept. 16th at 1PM Eastern US time, Gaurav Rathore (from Angete Kirkeby's group) will share his recent work. seminar info: carlocolantuoni.org/seminar.

Developmental Diversity in a Dish Seminar Series - YouTube A virtual seminar series focusing on stem cell models and functional variation across human iPSC lines. Monthly virtual seminar series, held on one Tuesday o...

today's discussion of CNS regionalization and its modeling in vitro is now online at:
www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

Linking alterations in precursor cells of brain 🧠 formation with the origin of #neuropsychiatricdiseases

#bioinformàtica #neuropsiquiatria #salutmental #autisme #Alzheimer #TalentMAR @santperelab.bsky.social @yaleneuro.bsky.social @hospitaldelmar.bsky.social

www.researchmar.net/news/742/lin...

Early developmental origins of cortical disorders modeled in human neural stem cells Nature Communications - The implications of early telencephalic development in cortical disorders remain elusive. Here, the authors define risk gene dynamics and perturbation effects in neural stem...

Excited to share our latest work, spearheaded by my brilliant student Xoel Mato and co-led by Nicola Micali. After years of sweat, intense weekly meetings, and meticulous discussion of every panel, we learned a lot from each other. Grateful for the journey!

@researchmar.bsky.social
rdcu.be/evCaU

Early developmental origins of cortical disorders modeled in human neural stem cells - Nature Communications The implications of early telencephalic development in cortical disorders remain elusive. Here, the authors define risk gene dynamics and perturbation effects in neural stem cells, revealing vulnerabi...

Excited to share our latest work, Mato-Blanco et al., nature.com/articles/s41.... Thanks to the incredible collaboration with Nicola Micali, Rakic lab, Sestan lab, Vaccarino lab
@yaleneuro.bsky.social @santperelab.bsky.social @carlocolantuoni.bsky.social

NEXT TUE: DDD seminar, July 8, 2025 @ 1PM Eastern US: Dr. Alessandro Vitriolo @alessandrovitriolo.bsky.social‬ (Lab of Dr. Giuseppe Testa) “Regulatory logic of human cortex evolution by combinatorial perturbations”. seminar info: carlocolantuoni.org/seminar [repost to spread the word]

Competing Programs Shape Cortical Sensorimotor-Association Axis Development The neocortex is organized along a dominant sensorimotor-to-association (S-A) axis, anchored by modality-specific primary sensorimotor areas at one end and transmodal association areas that form distr...

Thrilled to present MIND!

A model for how the sensorimotor–association axis of the neocortex develops.

Huge thanks to the incredible multidisciplinary team who made this happen.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

NEXT TUE: DDD seminar, June 10, 2025 @ 1PM Eastern US: Dr. Magdalena Sutcliffe (lab of Dr. M Lancaster @lancasterlab.bsky.social) “Epigenetic restoration of differentiation competency via reversal of epiblast regionalisation”. seminar info: carlocolantuoni.org/seminar [repost to spread the word]

Excited to showcase as a co-first author our latest work "Adaptive Evolution of Gene Regulatory Networks in Mammalian Neocortical Neurons "www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05....

Developmental Diversity in a Dish Seminar Series - YouTube A virtual seminar series focusing on stem cell models and functional variation across human iPSC lines. Monthly virtual seminar series, held on one Tuesday o...

The recording of today's DDD seminar by Dr. Ron McKay “Origin and consequences of genetically distinct behaviors in human neural stem cells” is now online at: www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

A human-specific enhancer fine-tunes radial glia potency and corticogenesis - Nature HARE5, a human accelerated region enhancer, modulates cortical development by influencing neural progenitor cell behaviour, leading to an enlarged neocortex with increased functional independence betw...

Thrilled to share our latest study out in @natureportfolio.nature.com led by the fantastically talented Jing Liu. Our study provides insight into a long standing question in biology: What molecular features make us uniquely human and how do these function? www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Today in @nature.com , we report a spatial single-cell atlas of human cortical development, revealing surprisingly early specification of human cortical layers and areas.
We built an interactive browser to explore the spatial data: walshlab.org/research/cor...
Paper link below 👇

NEXT TUE: DDD seminar, May 6, 2025 @ 1PM Eastern US: Dr. Ron McKay “Origin and consequences of genetically distinct behaviors in human neural stem cells”. seminar info: carlocolantuoni.org/seminar [repost to spread the word]