NYSCF Innovator Featured In New York Times Article On Medical Breakthroughs

“Between his thumb and forefinger. Dr. Sergiu Pasca held up a small vial of liquid. Inside floated a milky ball of cells — the early stages of an effort to better understand the human brain by building its parts from scratch.”

This was the introduction to a profile on NYSCF – Robertson Investigator Sergiu Pasca, MD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, published in The New York Times last week. The article highlighted people who are making extraordinary strides in medical science.

The vial of cells mentioned in the introduction is a reference to the process of creating brain organoids. Brain organoids are miniature 3D aggregates of lab-grown neural cells that can help researchers examine how the human brain develops. Dr. Pasca is interested in using brain organoids to study neuropsychiatric diseases like autism and schizophrenia. Understanding how the brains of neuropsychiatric patients develop and form circuits will hopefully lead to the development of more effective therapies—Dr. Pasca’s ultimate goal.

Read the full New York Times article here.