Sontag Award Recipient

"It is a privilege to be included among this group of talented, motivated, and incredibly innovative scientists. The Distinguished Scientist Award is helping to catalyze our efforts to understand the developmental principles that underlie glioblastoma using new genetic and stem cell tools. This award provides such an important and unique opportunity to interface with leaders in the field and the chance to build lasting relationships and collaborations."

About DSA-Funded Research

Dr. Sloan's Lab is using pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) derived non-invasively from skin samples to generate brain cells in the lab. Because the brain is a 3D structure and studying cells growing on a plate doesn't recapitulate its complexity, they are using human iPSCs to generate functional 3D structures that are patterned to mirror specific regions of the human brain. They can culture these 'brains-in-a-dish' for long periods of time to ask how normal brain development is occurring in a human system.