Brain contains billions of specialised cells called neurons that are key to the functioning of the nervous system. Development and evolution of the brain have been linked to the growth and size of its outer layer – the neocortex – which controls consciousness, emotion, and reasoning, as well as language and memory. In mammals, the evolution of the neocortex is primarily obtained through neural progenitors producing new neurons. Neurons and their progenitors are polarized as a result of an asymmetric distribution of intracellular molecules (molecular polarity) and an asymmetric shape (morphological polarity), both impacting on their proliferation and function. Moreover, polarity can not only be transmitted from a mother to a daughter cell (polarity inheritance), but it is also dynamically and reversibly modulated during cell cycle (polarity flexibility).
Cell polarity has been shown to be a key feature for the development of the brain and other organs, yet the role of polarity in the evolution of the brain and in the amplification of neural progenitors is ill defined. Nereo Kalebic (HT Neurogenomics Research Centre) and Takashi Namba (Helsinki Institute of Life Sciences) discuss the role of cell polarity in mammalian brain evolution and propose that polarity inheritance and flexibility of neural progenitors synergistically promote their own amplification and neuron dispersion throughout the developing brain. This novel concept has been recently published in Development.
Kalebic and Namba suggest that increased flexibility of cell polarity boosts the proliferative capacity of different types of neuronal precursors. Furthermore, they put forward the idea that newly generated neurons undergo four different modes of polarization and that flexibility of inherited polarity, with the consequent loss of the original polarity, promotes neuron migration within the neocortex.
Elucidating how inheritance and flexibility of cell polarity control neuronal precursor proliferation and neuron migration, as well as the molecular players involved will be instrumental to confirm the proposed model and expand our understanding of brain evolution and development.
The Human Technopole, ELIXIR Italia, the national node of the European life sciences research infrastructure coordinated by the National Research Council (CNR), and the Centro Cardiologico Monzino, as the Italian coordinating centre, have been selected as the Italian partners of Genome of Europe (GoE), the largest EU-funded genomic project, whose ultimate goal is to make […]
On Friday 13 December, at Palazzo Mezzanotte in Milan, the Human Technopole Foundation’s ‘Integrated Report 2023’ received the Oscar di Bilancio in the social enterprises and non-profit organisations category. The award was presented to President Gianmario Verona, Elena Trovesi, Head of Administration, as well as the project leaders Giovanni Selmi, Head of Finance, and Alessandro […]
An international team of scientists from Human Technopole and the University of Milan has developed and validated an innovative approach to studying human brain development across multiple individuals simultaneously using single organoids—laboratory models that replicate key cellular processes of human neurodevelopment. The research paves the way for in vitro population studies. Additionally, the scientists have developed a novel computational method to more accurately quantify the genetic identity of individual cells profiled from multiple individuals concurrently. The findings have been published in Nature Methods.
Human Technopole researchers have identified adducin-γ (ADD3) as a crucial regulator of glioblastoma cancer stem cell morphology and intercellular bridges between tumour cells. These connections facilitate communication and allow tumour cells to share resources, evade chemotherapy, and survive in challenging conditions. The study has been funded by AIRC and the findings are published in Life Science Alliance.
An international collaborative study led by Human Technopole, Candiolo Cancer Institute IRCCS in Turin, the University of Turin, and the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Cambridge (UK) has identified new factors associated with therapeutic response in colorectal cancer. The research has led to the development of a machine-learning model capable of accurately predicting the effects of cetuximab, a drug in clinical use, on different colorectal tumour subtypes. Funded by the AIRC Foundation, the study paves the way to identifying molecular features that could serve as biomarkers for predicting treatment response in patients with this type of cancer.
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