Everything that makes us human is contained within 1.4kg of yellowish tissue that we call the human brain. In the Knoblich lab we are fascinated by this enormously complex structure and study its formation during embryonic development. Our unique combination of model organisms allows us to study the mechanism of human brain development in a powerful way: We take basic principles from analysis of the simple brain of Drosophila, and transfer them to a human model using three-dimensional cerebral organoids. Our ability to recreate the process of human neurodevelopment in the lab using the organoid system allows us to investigate what goes wrong when patients develop neurodevelopmental disorders like microcephaly, or severe neuro-psychiatric disorders like epilepsy or autism.

Codes for published projects are provided via the repositories.

A full publication listing can be found here.