NEURON: Kosik Lab Pinpoints Critical Gene For Human Brain Development

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Compared to other mammals, humans have the largest cerebral cortex. A sheet of brain cells that folds in on itself multiple times in order to fit inside the skull, the cortex is the seat of higher functions. It is what enables us to process everything we see and hear and think.

The expansion of the cerebral cortex sets humans apart from the rest of their fellow primates. Yet scientists have long wondered what mechanisms are responsible for this evolutionary development.

New research from the Kosik Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology Lab at UC Santa Barbara has pinpointed a specific long noncoding ribonucleic acid (lncRNA) that regulates neural development (ND). The findings appear in the journal Neuron.
 

Photo: 

Kenneth Kosik and Neha Rani Photo Credit: Sonia Fernandez

News Date: 

Thursday, June 2, 2016