Q&A: How a stem cell bank is helping scientists understand psychiatric disorders

Medical Xpress July 27, 2024
Allessandra DiCorato, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard

When Ralda Nehme, a cell biologist and neuroscientist, first started her lab at the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in 2018, she realized a gap in the field. She was adept at growing stem cells in the lab, converting them into neurons, and using those cells to study the effects of genetic mutations linked to schizophrenia.

But she soon realized that to truly capture the complexity of human disease, she would need to study a large number of cells from many people with or without the disease and with different genetic backgrounds.

To meet this goal, Nehme and her lab established the Stanley Center’s Stem Cell Resource. Blood or skin cells from...