Scientists Discover Cellular Pathways Driving Human Brain Development

Researchers at UCLA identified that radial glia stem cells rely on the pentose phosphate pathway and glucose metabolism to determine the production of neurons during early human brain development.

A study published in Science revealed that physical contact from thalamic fibers triggers radial glia to generate excitatory upper-layer neurons, a mechanism linked to the NRXN1 gene associated with autism.

The findings, published in Cell and Science, utilized stem-cell-derived organoids to map how metabolic changes and physical signals from distant brain regions shape the cerebral cortex before birth.