A new study by UC San Diego researchers reveals unique inhibitory neurons in the human forebrain, offering insights that may improve models of brain function and disease, and showing that certain neurons share common lineages, a discovery with significant implications for understanding brain diseases.The study, led by Changuk Chung, Ph.D., and Xiaoxu Yang, Ph.D., both from the laboratory of Joseph G. Gleeson, M.D.
A trio of researchers Xiaoxu Yang, Changuk Chung and Joseph G. Gleeson led a study that advanced the understanding of the structure of the human brain on the cellular level. All three are associated with the University of California San Diego School of Medicine Department of Neurosciences and the Rady Children’s Institute for Genomic Medicine. Credit: UC San Diego Health Sciences
“If two individual cells have a same mosaic variant, they were born from a common mother cell that passed it to all of its daughters,” Yang explained. “So, mosaic variants in cells function like family names in people.”