EMBO fellowships enable deep research into brain organoids
Jasper Janssens and Marius Lange, postdoctoral researchers in the Quantitative Developmental Biology group led by Barbara Treutlein, will use organoids to study regulatory mechanisms of the brain throughout evolution and human development. Congratulations, Jasper and Marius, on receiving the EMBO fellowships for advancing brain research!
In his project, Marius will use various types of molecular data, such as gene expression or epigenetic features, to study human brain development through organoid model systems. This offers a unique opportunity to characterize the processes that happen during the early phases of neurodevelopment. He will develop computational models to integrate the data across time, space, and data types. The aim is to gain insights into the molecular control of brain development under normal and diseased conditions.
Jasper will study how enhancers, genetic switches that control the activity of genes, have changed throughout evolution. He will compare the development of specific brain regions across different species to identify unique enhancers and their characteristics. This will require a combination of experimental data with computational tools, including deep learning to pinpoint effects of mutations. The goal is to acquire a deeper understanding of gene regulation and its role in brain evolution and to understand what makes the human brain unique.
Learn about the research in the Quantitative Developmental Biology lab led by Barbara Treutlein.
Find information on external pageEMBO Postdoctoral Fellowships.