We will use genetic and pharmacological methods to confirm the oncogenic effect of candidate cancer drivers, and test strategies to reverse tumour growth.
/FIN.

Our plan is to use these organoids to understand the (epi)genetic underpinnings of medulloblastoma, a malignant childhood hindbrain cancer believed to arise during prenatal cerebellum development. /4

Most biomedical research is done in mouse models 🐭 , which do not adequately capture unique aspects of human 👶🏾 brain development, disease, or response to treatment. Organoids provide a much-needed human laboratory model for this purpose.
/3

These are the result of reprogramming human skin cells into stem cells and then into simple, 3D models of the human cerebellum. The image shows cross-sections of the organoids expressing signature proteins of cerebellar neurons. e.g., SOX2 for neural stem cells, KIRREL2 for Purkinje cells. /2

Boy am I relieved to finally go from end to end with this mono process! What a pretty target.

@nyaastarfest.bsky.social @nebulousnikki.bsky.social check it out! @eranandrechek.bsky.social this is the dust we were chatting about, around Polaris...

This is just the luminance channel, after stretching and before cropping. Just look at that dust and star detail. First time processing with my monochromatic setup...

My current phone lock screen! Taken last winter with the Oly DSLR and yes, the Samyang 135. Also imaged this in October with the new mono rig, hopefully get a chance to process the data over the holidays. Fingers crossed there's some IFN... 🤞🏾

A big thank you to his thesis committee members, Drs. @fgaiti.bsky.social and Trevor Pugh, the external examiners Drs. Gary Bader and Robert Kridel, and chair Dr. Alex Vitkin. Thank you for the discussion around this topic @neurodevkathy.bsky.social!