My research focuses on better understanding the early events in the brain that contribute to neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s Disease. We use human neurons grown in plastic dishes for our experiments. The cells originally come from human skin samples and these skin cells are ‘reprogrammed’ to become stem cells that have the potential to generate any cell in the human body. These are known as ‘induced pluripotent stem cells’ or iPSCs.
Using a cocktail of biological factors, we direct the iPSCs to become neurons and this provides a model of human neuronal development: the iPSCs are instructed to make a pool of neuronal progenitor cells that over time, give rise to neurons that can no longer divide. These neurons mature, make connections or synapses with one another to generate a neuronal network, and are electrically active, similar to cells found in the body. We can generate human neurons from both healthy controls and from those people who carry rare genetic mutations that give rise to inherited forms of Alzheimer’s Disease.