Meet the Stem Cells : Jan 27th, 2021- Sergiu Pașca

Brain assembloids and organoids to
study human development and
disease

Sergiu P. Pașca, MD
Stanford University

Date : Wednesday, January 27, 2021
Time : 17h30-18h30 (French time)

Dr Pașca is interested in understanding the rules governing brain assembly and the mechanisms of disease. A physician by training, he is a pioneer in developing human cellular models of neuropsychiatric disorders from stem cells. His laboratory introduced the use of instructive signals to create self-organizing 3D cellular structures named brain region-specific spheroids or organoids. Dr Pașca also pioneered a modular system to integrate 3D brain region-specific organoids and study migration and neural circuit formation in functional preparations he named assembloids. His laboratory has applied these models to gain novel insights into human physiology, evolution and disease mechanisms, and actively supported researchers around the world in learning and implementing these techniques.

Dr Sergiu P. Pașca is a tenured Associate Professor at Stanford
University and the inaugural Bonnie
Uytengsu and Family Director of Stanford Brain Organogenesis. He
is also a NYSCF  Robertson Investigator and a CZI Ben Barres Investigator.

Dr Pasca was named a Visionary in Medicine and Science by New York Times and Nature Medicine’s featured Physician-Scientists.  

The pioneering nature of his work has been recognized by a number of awards and distinctions including the 2018 Vilcek Award for Creative Biomedical Promise (shared with Feng Zhang and Polina Anikeva), the NIMH’s BRAINS Award (2015), Günter Blobel for Cell Biology (2018), and Daniel E. Efron Award from ACNP (2018).

www.pascalab.org