We've started a new Google group dedicated to Brain organoids. Check it out and join us! We want to create an open community to discuss methods, technical difficulties, and uses of organoids:

Super cool new work from the McDole lab on the extreme stress primordial germ cells have to endure on their journey to the gonads during embryonic development. It’s wild that a new generation is even possible after all that! https://t.co/D71QsMR20S

In case you missed it, check out our recent preprint on developmental timing and how slower means bigger, axons that is! Led by the extraordinary @feline_lindhout https://t.co/LjOlbr9kQ7

Very cool preprint by my colleague Kate McDole and her postdoc Katie Goodwin @CellBiol_MRCLMB using beautiful imaging and quantitative methods to understand the wondrous migrations of primordial germ cells in mouse embryos https://t.co/Ck9ORISLYk

You can find me here:

This is a fun read, especially with the cool scrolling animations 🤩

If you didn't yet have enough good reasons to share your bioimage data, Matthew (@BioimageA), Josh (@notjustmoore), Erin (@tuesdaystitches), Assaf (@AssafZaritsky) and I are here with squirrel drawings to convince you that you should do it: https://t.co/CEAjC8qFwo

On average, chimp cortical neurons contained 221 spines, while in human it's 980. So, 980 x 16 billion = 15.68 trillion synapses in human cortex, while 221 x 8 billion = 1.768 trillion in chimpanzee. A difference of almost 14 trillion, more than all the galaxies in the universe!

Dendritic spines are a neuroanatomical site of synapses, so counting their number can provide an indication of synapse number. Bianchi et al. (Cerebral Cortex 2013) painstakingly counted dendritic spine number on cortical neurons in 4 cortical regions in human and chimpanzee.

The human cortex contains roughly 2 times more neurons compared with chimpanzee. This means there are about 16 billion cortical neurons in human and 8 billion in chimpanzee.

One point I make in the article is the increase in neurons and their connections in humans compared with apes, with a mind-boggling difference in cortical synapse number of 14 trillion. Yes, you read that right. You might think my math is wrong, well here's how I calculated it:

I really enjoyed writing this Perspective for the special issue on Neuroscience. It's an exciting time to study the human brain! Unraveling mechanisms of human brain evolution: Cell

What an honour it was to visit UHasselt Biomed and receive an honorary doctorate. It’s a vibrant and growing community of biomedical scientists doing exciting work in immunology, cardiometabolic, and neuroscience!

Faculty Position in Developmental, Cell or Stem Cell Biology, King's College London https://t.co/J350mxXXNb via @the_Node

On the latest #NBTForum podcast, Barbara Cheifet speaks with Madeline Lancaster and Sergiu Pasca about neural organoids — how they are being used to study both basic biology of the brain and their future impacts on disease research

Check out this fantastic opportunity in the McDole lab here at the LMB. Right at the interface of imaging and development!

Sergiu and I had a nice chat with Barbara about all things neural organoids. Check it out in the podcast link 👇

Present your insights on how #organoids are transforming #DiseaseResearch! Demonstrate the power of organoids, and how they transcend many specialisms across science. ⏰Submit an abstract to #Organoids24 by 2 July to be considered for a presentation. 📎 https://t.co/3Jpp4F7gsk

We have #bursary support available to attend our #Organoids24 research meeting!  Don’t let financial barriers prevent you from accessing a global platform for discussion & networking on the topic of #organoid models.  Apply by 18 June ⏰ 📎Find out more: https://t.co/3Jpp4F7gsk

Some amazing northern lights over Cambridge on a beautiful warm clear night!

Check out this upcoming organoids conference packed full of great speakers pushing the limits of organoid technologies!