The complexity of the human brain makes recapitulating its development, function, and dysfunction extremely challenging. Furthermore, the inaccessibility of pre/postnatal human brain tissue severely restricts our knowledge of human brain development, which derives mostly from studies using postmortem specimens. There is therefore an urgent need to develop new experimental model systems using human cells that recapitulate key aspects of brain development and pathology. 3D culture based on pluripotent stem cells promises to recreate key molecular and architectural features of cerebral tissue thus providing a model system for studying poorly-understood processes of human brain. Similarly, recent advances in NGS technologies are offering an unprecedented opportunity to unravel the complexity of the human brain at single-cell resolution.

The aim of this Workshop is to bring together researchers from different fields ranging from stem cell reprogramming and brain organoids to single-cell omics in order to meet the needs of increasing our comprehension of molecular mechanism(s) underlying human brain physiology and disease. Coupling cutting-edge human 3D models and single-cell omics will be critical for designing targeted disease-modifying therapies for neurological disorders. The Workshop will act as a springboard for the exploration of new ideas regarding the development, evolution, and disease of the human brain.

https://meetings.embo.org/