Helen Bateup, Associate Professor of Molecular Therapeutics, and her lab are utilizing human brain organoid models to identify the underlying source of seizures in a common pediatric early-onset epilepsy, paving the way for promising treatment strategies.
Excerpt from Berkeley News: "In Helen Bateup’s UC Berkeley lab, graduate students and postdocs painstakingly nurture tiny balls of human brain cells for months and even years until they develop structures that mimic those in the brains of newborns shortly after birth. By mutating genes in these so-called organoids, Bateup and her Berkeley team have now discovered a source of seizures in children with one of the most common forms of early-onset epilepsy — and have identified possible treatment strategies. Read more in the Berkeley news article here.
An 89-day-old, human-derived brain organoid (close-up at right) with normal cells stained blue and mutated cells stained red. Helen Bateup/UC Berkeley