Advancing knowledge of human development, developmental disabilities, and neurodegenerative diseases.
Immunostaining and microglia isolation via magnetic cell sorting was performed at postnatal day 2, 9, 30 and 60 (P2, P9, P30, P60). Microglia branching and soma size were quantified using semiautomated software analysis (Imaris, Oxford Insturments).
Human pluripotent stem cell-derived neural organoids provide unprecedented potential to recapitulate human brain and spinal cord tissues in vitro. However, organoid morphogenesis relies upon cell-intrinsic self-assembly of biomimetic tissue structures in the absence of normal developmental constraints and morphogen signaling centers.
Weak central coherence (processing details over gist), poor oral language abilities, poor suppression, semantic interference, and poor comprehension monitoring have all been implicated to affect reading comprehension in individuals with ASD.
Currently there are few evidence-based programs available for families of individuals with ASD during the transition to adulthood. The present study provided a preliminary evaluation of a multi-family group psychoeducation intervention using a randomized waitlist control design (n = 41).
Empathy, the ability to understand others' emotions, can occur through perspective taking and experience sharing. Neural systems active when adults empathize include regions underlying perspective taking (e.g. medial prefrontal cortex; MPFC), and experience sharing (e.g. inferior parietal lobule; IPL).
Hormones present in hair provide summative information about endocrine activity while the hair was growing. Therefore, it can be collected from an infant after birth and still provide retrospective information about hormone exposure during prenatal development.
Alzheimer’s disease is characterized by accumulation of beta amyloid (Aβ) and hyperphosphorylated tau proteins, which neuropathology suggests follow distinct spatiotemporal patterns.
Rett syndrome (RTT) is a debilitating neurodevelopmental disorder caused by mutations in the MECP2 gene. To facilitate the study of cellular mechanisms in human cells, we established several human stem cell lines.
Astrogliosis following hypoxia-ischemia (HI) related brain injury plays a role in increased morbidity and mortality in neonates. Recent clinical studies indicate that the severity of brain injury appears to be sex-dependent and that male neonates are more susceptible to the effects of HI resulting in worse neurological outcomes compared to females with comparable brain injuries.
Height is a highly heritable, classic polygenic trait with approximately 700 commonly associated variants identified through genome-wide association studies so far.
