Development in a Dish : can stem cells reveal the biology of neurodiversity ?

Orateur : Jack PRICE (King’s College London)

Neurodiversity—as seen for example between autistic and neurotypical individuals—is driven by both genetic and environmental factors. If we are to understand the etiology of neurodevelopmental disorders, we need to be able to model such diversity, such that we can investigate the mechanisms by which it arises. Induced pluripotent cells (iPSCs) offer an opportunity to investigate neurodiversity by allowing us to isolate stem cells from multiple individuals, patients and controls, to differentiate these stem cells along multiple lineages (for example into nerve cells of different types), and to ask how these derived cells differ between genotypes, or as a consequence of environmental impact. In this lecture, I’ll present studies using human iPSCs to investigate the role of genetic causes of autism (specifically SHANK3) together with environmental risk factors (maternal immune activation), and discuss how the resultant phenotypes converge. I’ll discuss the insights that emerge into the cellular memory underlying the developmental trajectory of autism.

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