By applying for an MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship with the University of Tartu, you can access 3 funding pathways: MSCA, ERA Fellowships, and national funding schemes.
Get in touch if interested in brain development, autism spectrum disorders, and single-cell genomics.
ut.ee/en/content/p...
Excited to present our work at the 2026 #ISEH Mini Symposium!
“Beyond the Maturation Block: Oncofetal Reprogramming and Stem Cell Plasticity in Pediatric Leukemia”
Join us on April 16 to discuss developmental programs in leukemia and beyond.
iseh.org/Webinars-Eve...
Exciting study by @lenakutscher.bsky.social and @doctorpauln77.bsky.social on male bias in medulloblastoma:
“testosterone and the XY genotype cooperate to increase the abundance of specific cerebellar progenitor populations”
Elegant use of Four Core Genotypes mice + recapitulation in organoids
Here's the preprint!!
Luca will be presenting this work at the @events.embl.org #EESSexDifferences conference later next month! Come by his poster and let us know what you think :D
We're really excited about this work and are currently investigating the underlying mechanisms behind this specific increase. Project was co-led by graduate student Luca Bianchini in my group, along with two postdocs: Rachel Xu and David Filipovic.
We hypothesise that boys are more likely to develop medulloblastoma, simply because more progenitors are available for transformation!
Specifically, we found that testosterone and the XY genotype were important for increasing the abundance of UBC_GC progenitors in male embryos. Interestingly, male cells also had more open chromatin of key tumour related genes such as OTX2.
Working together with Paul Northcott's team at St. Jude, we investigated large-scale clinical cohorts, generated a sex-matched single-cell atlas of the murine cerebellum, and validated key findings in both murine models and human iPSC-derived cerebellar organoids.
Group 3/4 medulloblastoma are the most common subtypes, and they present at nearly a 2:1 bias in male patients. As no obvious genetic basis for this bias was present (mutations on X), we hypothesised that perhaps differences in cerebellar development could underlie this bias.
graphical abstract for "Developmental determinants of male bias in medulloblastoma" preprint. We propose that boys are more likely to develop Group 3/4 medulloblastoma more vulnerable cells-of-origin are available for transformation. Specifically, GC_UBC progenitors in the developing cerebellum are more abundant in male murine embryos, as a result of testosterone exposure and the XY genotype.
New preprint alert! I'm excited to share our latest preprint where we investigate the underlying developmental causes of the male bias in the pediatric brain tumor Group 3/4 medulloblastoma. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Go Roy!!!
We’re looking for a HiWi to join our team! In case you know any current BSc or MSc students, preferably in an early semester, please send them our way. No need for prior experience - we’ll teach the necessary skills! jobs.dkfz.de/en/jobs/1684...
interested in working on sex differences during development and in tumor initiation! come join our lab via the MSCA MasterClass
We’re looking for a HiWi to join our team! In case you know any current BSc or MSc students, preferably in an early semester, please send them our way. No need for prior experience - we’ll teach the necessary skills! jobs.dkfz.de/en/jobs/1684...
The next #ScienceatDKFZ event will take place on Thursday, 19 March 2026, at 4 pm. In addition to the keynote lecture by Sigrid Carlsson, there will be four 5-minute short talks by DKFZ junior scientists on recent highlight publications.
👉 dkfz.de/en/news/even...
Registration is open for @dmmjournal.bsky.social 2026 meeting 'Innovative Preclinical Models for Pediatric Cancer Research' organised by James Amatruda amatrudalab.bsky.social, Pratiti (Mimi) Bandopadhayay, bandolab.bsky.social, Ana Banito & Elaine Mardis. Find out more bit.ly/46r84Ca #DMM2026cancer
They figured out meander tail mouse has an Mysm1 mutation!
I have been curious about this mouse since I got into the cerebellum field, as this mouse is the only model identified so far that has defects preferentially in the anterior cerebellum. very cool follow up!! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
in case you are interested, please get in touch! Application requirements include at least one first author paper published and a PhD within four months of the submission deadline (March 31st). other Information and our project details are in the link above!
Ramsey Najm and I have a joint postdoc position advertised through the @hlsalliance.bsky.social Interinstitutional Postdoc call! Our project proposes to generate better posterior cerebellar organoids to improve fidelity of pediatric medulloblastoma models.
www.health-life-sciences.de/opportunitie...
The figure shows the key features of human cerebellar patterning and gene expression. Panel A: The midbrain –hindbrain boundary is set at ∼4-5 post-conception weeks. The isthmic organizer secretes the morphogens to set the boundary. Panel B: around 10 weeks post conception, two progenitor pools are specified, including the ventricular zone, which generates all inhibitory neurons and glial cells, and the rhombic lip, which generates all excitatory neurons. The external granule layer is a second germinal zone producing the abundant excitatory granule neurons of the cerebellum. Panel C: at later stages in development, the cerebellum becomes highly foliated and adopts its characteristic three-layer structure. Panel D: major cell types of the mature cerebellum include Purkinje cells, granule cells, unipolar brush cells, GABAergic interneurons and cerebellar nuclei.
Esther Becker, Simone Mayer and @lenakutscher.bsky.social teamed up to summarise current approaches for generating #cerebellar #organoids and advocate for the establishment of rigorous quality control standards to ensure reproducible, high-quality research.
Read doi.org/10.1242/dmm....
Thanks Heike :)
We hope our data can be useful to you, and to increase its usability, we've generated an exploratory web app as a resource and starting point to examine our data on the @kaessmannlab.bsky.social website apps.kaessmannlab.org/HindbrainExp...
We also show how our atlas can be used to dissect the role of HOX transcriptions factors in hindbrain patterning. We also examine pediatric gliomas, where we identify subtle yet coordinated shifts in gene expression context that define oncogenic transformation.
Our results reveal how context-specific transcription factor activity emerges from the interplay between inductive transcriptional signals and permissive chromatin states, together driving the cellular heterogeneity observed across hindbrain development.
Our extensively annotated atlas enables systematic reconstruction of neuronal and glial lineages, offering a high-resolution view of the gene expression programs and underlying cis-regulatory elements that drive their development.
We integrate 594,817 single-nuclei transcriptomes and 422,568 chromatin-accessibility profiles across the full developmental continuum from early embryonic stages to adulthood.
Brain with puzzle overlay to show that our study provides missing pieces of the puzzle of human brain development by delivering the most comprehensive picture of hindbrain development to date. We have strived to go beyond just another multi-omics atlas to gain deep insights by: 1. Meticulously annotating cell clusters 2. Extracting regulatory programs in terms of coordinated gene sets and accessible regulatory elements 3. Using deep learning to identify regulatory syntax 4. Resolving context-specific TF activity
Excited to share our preprint on our new multi-omic atlas of human hindbrain development. Led by postdoc Piyush Joshi, in collaboration with @kaessmannlab.bsky.social and Pfister labs, our atlas represents the first comprehensive view of human hindbrain development. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
thanks Cedric!!