Neurogenesis: a life-long matter?

The scientific enterprise takes place across different cultures (space) and histories (time). In 2006, when Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University spoke at an evening session of a scientific conference, the room was electrified, jazzed, switched on. The participants had spent that afternoon skiing on the slopes of Whistler Mountain and knew something important was going down: differentiation was reversible, adult cells could be reprogrammed to a very early, pluripotent state. Human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) are now central in many areas of medicine. As we discussed in the first issue of neuroDEVELOPMENTS, human iPS cells have an extraordinary potential to model the great waves of epithelial proliferation and differentiation forming the central nervous system. That evening in 2006, could we have imagined where Shinya’s talk would lead?

Here we change our focus to one specific region of the adult human forebrain that retains early developmental features, the hippocampus. In this third issue of neuroDEVELOPMENTS, you are invited to imagine selective reprogramming of the intact adult human brain, targeted rejuvenation. To help in this quest you have a central text that discusses two key papers and comments from our board. We maintain a narrow focus to better introduce the central ideas. These will inform your continued exploration of many other exciting reports in stem cells, animal models and growing numbers of relevant human data sets. Thanks to the board for their thoughts, to the Lieber and Maltz families for their support, and to you for your interest and imagination.

-Ron McKay, PhD, Chief Editor
Lieber Institute for Brain Development

-Venkata S. Mattay, MD
Managing Editor

-Michele Solis, PhD
Science Writer

neuroDEVELOPMENTS Issue 1

neuroDEVELOPMENTS Issue 2

neuroDEVELOPMENTS Issue 3

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