🚨 We’re hiring! Please repost to spread the words! The Qian Lab (@CHOP & @pennmedicine.bsky.social) is recruiting Postdocs and Research Technicians to study human brain development & neurodevelopmental disorders. 📍Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | 🧠 organoids, spatial omics, cerebral cortex

Honored to be featured in Genomic Press's Rising Stars series! @genomicpress.bsky.social ✨ In this very personal interview, I share the path that led me to neuroscience🧠, the anime that changed my life, and what drives my research. 📰 Read it here: doi.org/10.61373/gp0...

I'm thrilled to share that I will be starting my independent lab this winter as a tenure-track Assistant Professor at the new BRIDGE Center at CHOP and @pennmedicine.bsky.social Grateful for the support from mentors, collaborators, and friends—excited for what's ahead! 🧠✨

Today in @nature.com , we report a spatial single-cell atlas of human cortical development, revealing surprisingly early specification of human cortical layers and areas. We built an interactive browser to explore the spatial data: walshlab.org/research/cor... Paper link below 👇

POV: "Having too much single-cell data but don't know what to do about it." Each of those is a 5TB hard drive. Happy Easter! 🎉 🎉

We just posted two preprints on uncovering the genetic bases of species-specific differences in neural progenitors, excitatory neurons, and upon neuronal stimulation using the human-chimpanzee tetraploid system. Please check them out! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Human-chimpanzee tetraploid system defines mechanisms of species-specific neural gene regulation

A major challenge in human evolutionary biology is to pinpoint genetic differences that underlie human-specific traits, such as increased neuron number and differences in cognitive behaviors. We used human-chimpanzee tetraploid cells to distinguish gene expression changes due to cis -acting sequence variants that change local gene regulation, from trans expression changes due to species differences in the cellular environment. In neural progenitor cells, examination of both cis and trans changes – combined with CRISPR inhibition and transcription factor motif analyses – identified cis -acting, species-specific gene regulatory changes, including to TNIK , FOSL2 , and MAZ , with widespread trans effects on neurogenesis-related gene programs. In excitatory neurons, we identified POU3F2 as a key cis -regulated gene with trans effects on synaptic gene expression and neuronal firing. This study identifies cis -acting genomic changes that cause cascading trans gene regulatory effects to contribute to human neural specializations, and provides a general framework for discovering genetic differences underlying human traits. ### Competing Interest Statement C.A.W. is on the SAB of Bioskyrb Genomics (cash, equity) and Mosaica Therapeutics (cash, equity), and is an advisor to Maze Therapeutics (equity), but these have no relevance to this work. The remaining authors declare no competing interests.

biorxiv.org

Excited to share our latest preprint, presenting a multi-omic human neural organoid cell atlas of the posterior brain! 🧠🔬 doi.org/10.1101/2025... Great work with @hsiuchuanlin.bsky.social @zhisonghe.bsky.social @graycamplab.bsky.social and Barbara Treutlein!

We uncovered a shared pattern of neuronal somatic mutations across ALS, FTD, and AD. 🔗 doi.org/10.1101/2025... Huge thanks to co-first authors Joe Luquette & @guanlandong.bsky.social , and everyone in the Park, Lagier-Tourenne, Lee, and Walsh labs!

Recurrent patterns of widespread neuronal genomic damage shared by major neurodegenerative disorders

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), frontotemporal dementia (FTD), and Alzheimer's disease (AD) are common neurodegenerative disorders for which the mechanisms driving neuronal death remain unclear. ...

doi.org

The @standupforscience.bsky.social DC rally is on. What we are hearing from around the country: "this is big!" "biggest rally I have seen around here in years and years" The public cares about medical research--and students, GenZ, and other people too are ready to stand up.

Finally joined Bluesky! Reposting our preprint on spatial single-cell analysis of human cortical development! We used #MERFISH to analyze 16 million cells, revealing surprisingly early prenatal specification of human cortical layers and areas. t.co/EzAgvJdvaw

This poll is probably the most effective ad.

Eric Topol@erictopol.bsky.social · 2y ago

Welcome immigrants from X interested in science to the friendlier skies of @bsky.app, as documented by a new @nature.com survey (but you already knew that 😉) "Bluesky is much better for science. There is much less toxicity, misinformation, and distractions." www.nature.com/articles/d41...