Brain development study: Scientists have completed a first draft atlas of how human and mammalian brain cells emerge and mature from early embryonic stages through adulthood, an advance that could sharpen understanding of disorders such as autism and schizophrenia.
The work, published across Nature and related journals, comes from the US NIH’s BRAIN Initiative Cell Atlas Network (BICAN) and maps when and where distinct brain cell types are “born,” how they differentiate, and which genes switch on or off as they develop.
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Using human and mouse tissue (with supporting data from monkeys), researchers traced thousands of cell types across key regions, including the neocortex and hypothalamus, identifying gene programs that control development and uncovering previously unknown human cell types. They also found shared features between species alongside distinctly human patterns such as a prolonged timeline of cortical cell differentiation that mirrors the long arc of human brain development.
One study reported that a subset of human brain tumour cells resembles embryonic progenitors, suggesting cancers may hijack normal developmental pathways. The draft atlases, led in part by teams at the Allen Institute and UCLA, are intended as a foundation for comparing healthy and diseased brains and for designing more precise gene- and cell-based therapies.
Next steps aim to link these developmental “maps” to vulnerabilities in neurodevelopmental and psychiatric conditions and to explore how developmental programs re-emerge in brain cancers.
