معرفی
Nenad Sestan is the Harvey and Kate Cushing Professor of Neuroscience at Yale School of Medicine, with additional professorial appointments in Comparative Medicine, Genetics, and Psychiatry. He is based in the Department of Neuroscience and holds secondary affiliations in the Child Study Center, Comparative Medicine, Genetics, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry. He serves as Executive Director of the Genome Editing Center at Yale and leads the Sestan Lab, which is affiliated with the Wu Tsai Institute, Yale Stem Cell Center, and Kavli Institute for Neuroscience.
His research focuses on the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying human brain development, evolution, and disorders. He employs cutting-edge techniques including single-cell transcriptomics, spatial transcriptomics, and human neural stem cell models to study cortical development, neural circuit formation, and neurodevelopmental conditions such as lissencephaly. His work bridges genomics, developmental biology, and neuroscience to decode the origins of human brain complexity.
Recent publications highlight his contributions to understanding cortical layer and area specification, the molecular basis of claustro-amygdalar circuits, and the transcriptomic landscapes of mammalian cortical development. His research also extends to organ recovery mechanisms and the genomic underpinnings of brain evolution through large-scale projects like the human and non-human primate developmental GTEx.
- Innovative Research Award, Kavli Institute for Neuroscience (2022)
Sestan has mentored numerous trainees and maintains extensive collaborations, particularly with researchers such as Mark Gerstein, Flora Vaccarino, and Alexej Abyzov. His lab receives support from major grants and contributes to interdisciplinary initiatives in brain science, stem cell research, and genome editing. He is a principal investigator in several high-impact studies exploring human cortical development and disease modeling using organoids and single-cell technologies.
He is actively involved in the scientific community through leadership in the Genome Editing Center and participation in collaborative research studios focused on RNA science, neurodevelopment, and regenerative medicine. His work continues to advance the understanding of human brain development and its disorders, with implications for therapeutic innovation.