Seminar: Bulent Ataman, Mon., Jan. 30, 2017
Bulent Ataman
Dept. of Neurobiology
Harvard Medical School
Monday, Jan. 30, 2017
11:00-11:50 am
CCRC Auditorium
Pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) are widely used to investigate human development and disease mechanisms. However, under conventional culture conditions human PSCs do not resemble “naive” Experience-driven programs of neuronal gene expression have been shown to regulate the brain development and the components of these programs are mutated in a variety of human disorders of cognitive function. We identified a new neuronal activity-dependent secreted factor Osteocrin (OSTN) that is expressed in developing human and macaque cerebral cortex. Our findings suggest that OSTN evolved to regulate features of neuronal structure and function that are unique to primates..