Research summary
Thanks to cutting-edge technologies developed over the past decade, we can easily grow and mutate human stem cells in the lab and turn them into any cell type in the body.
Dr. Lisa Julian, Canada Research Chair in Developmental Origins of Stem Cell Fate, is using these powerful technologies to study the impact of genetic mutations that cause rare human diseases in stem cells as they are differentiating into cell types. She and her research team are focusing on the impacts on cell types of the brain. The information they gain could reveal profound insights about the biological processes that build our brains and make us who we are.