Transcriptional regulation of brain cortex development

We investigate the mechanisms that control the spatio-temporal expression of genes operating in brain cortex development by using human brain organoids (self-organized 3D cultures derived from pluripotent stem cells that recapitulate brain structure development and inner organization) as a model system. We combine functional genomics and chromatin epigenetic and interaction profiles analysis to address: (i) The role of the non-coding regulatory sequences and chromatin architecture in neurodevelopmental gene expression, and (ii) The epigenetic mechanisms that control the activity of non-coding regulatory sequences.