News
Pollen lab and Kriegstein lab publish cover article describing the potential to compare human and ape brain development using stem cell derived organoid models
Chimpanzee 'mini-brains' hint at secrets of human evolution February 8, 2019 By Nicholas Weiler | UCSF At some point during human evolution, a handful of genetic changes triggered a dramatic threefold expansion of the brain's neocortex, the wrinkly outermost layer of...
Lab receives NIH New Innovator Award to study genetic control of human brain evolution
Three UCSF Researchers Win NIH Grants for High-Risk, High-Reward Research October 1, 2019 By Nina Bai | UCSF The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded grants to three UC San Francisco researchers to pursue highly innovative and unusually impactful biomedical...
UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute launches brain research project
February 27, 2019
By Tim Stephens | UCSC
The UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute, in collaboration with neuroscience faculty at UC San Francisco, is launching an ambitious new project to learn how the human brain evolved and how its neural circuitry develops.
UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute research sheds light on gray matter
SANTA CRUZ, CA – January 10, 2019 Investigators at the UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute and UCSC Institute for the Biology of Stem Cells are helping complete the picture of what makes us human. They hope that their latest research that looks closely at our brains and compares its evolution to that of other primates, including apes and monkeys — will provide the basis for important insights underlying brain development.
![New Genetic Clues to the Mystery of Your Giant Brain [Video]](https://braingeneers.ucsc.edu/files/2019/06/various-skulls.jpg)
New Genetic Clues to the Mystery of Your Giant Brain [Video]
SciShow, Hosted by: Stefan Chin
“I don’t like to brag, but I’ve got a pretty big brain. And so do you.”
Genes found only in humans influence brain size
May 31, 2018
By Tim Stephens | UCSC
A set of three nearly identical genes found only in humans appear to play a critical role in the development of our large brains, according to a study led by researchers at UC Santa Cruz.
New Genetic Clues to the Mystery of Your Giant Brain
Compared to gorillas and orangutans, our brains are 3X as big. Brain size is likely a big part of what makes us human. UC Santa Cruz and UCSF scientists recently made an important discovery shedding light on how we got big brains.