Source: University of Wisconsin-Madison
Date: July 1, 2010
Summary:
With more than 100 billion neurons and billions of other specialized cells, the human brain is a marvel of nature. It is the organ that makes people unique. Now, writing in the journal Cell Stem Cell (July 1, 2010), a team of scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison has identified a single gene that seems to be a master regulator of human brain development, guiding undifferentiated stem cells down tightly defined pathways to becoming all of the many types of cells that make up the brain.
The new finding is important because it reveals the main genetic factor responsible for instructing cells at the earliest stages of embryonic development to become the cells of the brain and spinal cord. Identifying the gene — known as Pax6 — is a first critical step toward routinely forging customized brain cells in the lab. What's more, the work contrasts with findings from animal models such as the mouse and zebrafish, pillars of developmental biology, and thus helps cement the importance of the models being developed from human embryonic stem cells.
