In the nervous system, the specification of hundreds of distinct neuronal subtypes during embryonic development underlies the formation of neural circuits encoding cognitive functions and behaviors. Functional impairments or degeneration of specific neuronal populations underpin most neurological disorders. The links between neuronal diversity and the selectivity of neurodegenerative diseases remain elusive. To approach this question, we are using human induced pluripotent stem cells, mouse embryonic stem cells and embryology approaches to decipher the complex cross talks of developmental cues that control the specification of neuronal subtypes in the spinal cord, hindbrain and cortex and assess the differential vulnerability of specific neuronal subtypes in diseases such as spinal muscular atrophies.
Methods
- Human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPS)
- Mouse embryonic stem cell (ES)
- Large scale targeted differentiation of pluripotent stem cells
- Transcriptomics
- Microfluidic
- Histology
