Madeline Lancaster

Professor Madeline Lancaster serves as an Affiliate Professor at the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute and Group Leader in the Cell Biology Division of the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology at the University of Cambridge. With her laboratory situated on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, she leads pioneering research in human brain development using cerebral organoid technology she helped establish during her postdoctoral work at the IMBA in Vienna.

Dr. Lancaster completed her biochemistry studies at Occidental College in Los Angeles before earning her PhD in biomedical sciences from the University of California, San Diego in 2010. Her groundbreaking work developing the first brain organoids began during her postdoctoral training in the Knoblich lab at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, where she established the foundational techniques for cerebral organoid culture. She joined the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in 2015 where she continues to advance this technology.

Her research program focuses on understanding the fundamental differences between human brain development and that of other mammalian species, examining what makes human brain development unique. The Lancaster lab utilizes cerebral organoids - 3D tissues generated from stem cells that model human brain development in vitro - to investigate neurodevelopmental disorders including autism and intellectual disability, while also conducting comparative evolutionary studies to identify factors involved in human brain size expansion.

Analysis of her recent publication record reveals a clear trajectory toward increasingly sophisticated organoid models with enhanced physiological relevance, including air-liquid interface systems, vascularized models, and assembloids that better capture neural circuitry. Her work spans fundamental developmental biology, disease modeling, and cross-species evolutionary comparisons, with growing emphasis on functional maturation and electrophysiological properties of organoid systems.

As a Group Leader, Professor Lancaster mentors a diverse research team including postdoctoral researchers and graduate students working across multiple projects related to brain development and disease. Her laboratory maintains strong collaborations across the Cambridge research community and internationally, contributing significantly to the development of organoid technology standards and applications.

The Lancaster lab operates within the advanced research environment of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, utilizing cutting-edge facilities including bioinformatics, electron microscopy, genomics, imaging, and single-cell platforms available through the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute core facilities. Her work continues to push the boundaries of what organoid models can reveal about human-specific aspects of brain development and disease.