Toshimichi Yamada
University of California-San Francisco, CA·Biomedical Engineering
Brain organoids are small, lab-grown 3D tissues made from stem cells that imitate parts of the developing brain. They are valuable models, but they often come out disorganized.
- Fields
Biomedical Engineering
Biology
Neuroscience
- Topics
brain organoids
synthetic organizers
morphogen gradients
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2028
What they work on
- Engineer synthetic organizer cells, engineered cells that release signaling molecules from set positions, producing WNT3A, DKK1, FGF, CER, NOGGIN, BMP4 or SHH to control axis formation in brain organoids.
- Create head-to-tail (anterior–posterior) gradients with opposing DKK1 and WNT organizers, and check for hindbrain, midbrain, forebrain and cortical layers using immunostaining, RNAscope and single-cell RNA sequencing.
- Combine organizers placed at right angles to build crossing head-to-tail and back-to-belly axes in brain organoids, and test for organized, connected brain subregions.
More about the research
They differ from one batch to the next, and they lack the regional layout of a real brain. A main reason is that standard recipes add morphogens, the chemical signals that tell embryonic cells where they are, evenly throughout the culture medium. In a real embryo, these signals come from specific locations and form gradients. This project tests whether placing morphogen sources at chosen spots can produce more organized and reproducible brain organoids.
Why it matters
More structured and reproducible brain organoids could give researchers better models of human brain development. Such models could also be used for studying neurological disease and for neural engineering, where varied and poorly organized organoids now limit how far experiments can be trusted and compared.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Scott Atwood
University of California-Irvine, CA·Biology
Define the stem cell states and transition states human epidermal progenitors pass through as they form layered skin, using single-cell RNA sequencing of organoids grown on engineered substrates.
Michael Blatchley
Syracuse University, NY·Biomedical Engineering·Early-career
Test how light-triggered softening or stiffening of a PEG hydrogel matrix changes the cell-type makeup and maturation of iPSC-derived intestinal epithelial organoids over time.
Cheng-Ming Chuong
University of Southern California, CA·Biology
Test whether skin morphogenesis is built from linked sensor–actuator modules that turn physical cues, such as adhesion forces and ECM pulling, into gene activity, using living skin and organ explants.
The school
University of California-San Francisco: 89 labs on PI Pages, $2.1B a year on research, 164 research doctorates a year.
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