"Wired to be Human: Development and Evolution of Neocortical Circuits”

Nenad Sestan, M.D., Ph.D., Executive Director, Yale Genome Editing Center, Professor, Department of Genetics, Yale School of Medicine Our research focuses on understanding the molecular and cellular basis of how neural circuits are established and maintained in the cerebral cortex, the outside part of the mammalian brain that processes our senses, commands motor activity, and helps us perform higher-order cognitive functions like language. We also study how these complex processes were modified during human evolution and may become compromised in neuropsychiatric disorders. An important element of our research is the integration of complementary approaches that combine 1) analyses of evolutionarily-conserved mechanisms using the genetically tractable mouse model, 2) functional, genomic and cellular analyses of humans and non- human primates to identify human- specific features of brain development and organization, and 3) genetic and molecular analyses of neuropsychiatric disorders