Professor Guo-Li Ming talks about how the neuronal networks are formed during brain development. She and others have developed technologies that enable the formation of brain organoids ('mini-brains') from human pluripotent stem cells. Guo=Li has used such brain organoids to elucidate how the brain normally develops and what goes wrong in developmental brain disorders including schizophrenia and autism. She has also provided evidence that by infecting neural stem cells, ZIKA virus and COVID-19 viruses may adversely affect the brain. Professor Ming's laboratory website: https://www.med.upenn.edu/minglab/
Brain Ponderings podcast with Mark Mattson