From brain developpement in health and disease to spine-on-chip model to study human spinal cord developpement

The development of the human central nervous system starts by the closure of the neural tube between day 23 to 30 of gestation. This event leads to the formation of two important regions: the brain in the rostral part and the spinal cord in the caudal part. The brain is a complex organ that control and process thought, memory, emotion, sensation, movement etc. and the spinal cord is the relay between the body and the brain and conduct sensory and motor information. During my PhD and my first postdoc, I tried to understand how newborn neurons migrate to settle in the appropriate region of the brain in mice and why their migration is affected in some diseases such as ciliopathies or prenatal alcohol exposure. However, animal models present significant limitations in the understanding of human development. Therefore, to fully understand the human central nervous system development and recapitulate human diseases, new experimental models need to be developed. The use of organ-on-chip permit the development of new human models allowing to better understand how the organ of interest is generated. By using microfluidic devices, we are setting up a new model of human spinal cord to study the acquisition of cellular diversity during the development of this structure. In the developing spinal cord, 11 molecularly distinct progenitor territories give rise to the full neural populations necessary for a functional spinal cord. By using these innovative microfluidic devices, we can further assess the specificity of human spinal cord development and study cell-cell communication and morphogens gradient involved in progenitor cell fate acquisition.