The Campbell Lab

Brains self-assemble through a carefully orchestrated balance of extrinsic guidance and intrinsic imperatives. Incredibly, the process that shapes this exquisitely complex organ has evolved to be remarkably reliable, robust, and reproducible. When neural development is disrupted, however, the effects are devastating, and cause some of our most mysterious neurological disorders. It is our belief that understanding the regulatory networks that direct brain development, and how they can be led astray, is critical to treating and preventing neurodevelopmental disorders like autism. The Campbell lab uses stem cell and mouse models to study the regulatory networks that underlie cellular specification, with a special interest in the intersection of extrinsic and intrinsic signals and their link to human disease.