By combining expertise in stem cell biology and neurobiology, our laboratory has pioneered a new approach by which to study psychiatric disease. The focus of our research is schizophrenia, a debilitating psychiatric disorder for which there exists no cure. The genetic mechanisms responsible for this disorder are not well understood, the precise cell type affected remains unknown and few defining characteristics of diseased cells have been identified, in part due to the lack of live brain tissue for study. We are working to understand how neurons from patients with schizophrenia differ from those from healthy controls. Specifically, we obtain skin samples from patients, which are then reprogrammed into induced pluripotent stem cells, and subsequently differentiated into human neurons. The goal of our research is to better understand the genetic and cellular mechanisms contributing to schizophrenia, in the hope that this may one day lead to new potential therapies.
국가
미국
소속기관
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (학교)
연락처
책임자
Kristen Brennand kristen.brennand@mssm.edu
