Molecular map reveals how Down syndrome alters brain development

Scientists at UCLA have created one of the first cellular-resolution molecular maps detailing how Down syndrome alters human brain development before birth - a resource that resolves longstanding contradictions in the field and could lay the groundwork for future therapeutic strategies.

The study, published in Science, analyzed more than 100,000 nuclei from human prenatal neocortex samples collected across 26 pre-genotyped donors during gestational weeks 13 to 23 - the only window during which all the cortical neurons a person will carry for their entire life are generated. The findings suggest that Down syndrome disrupts the developmental sequence of that process, creating shifts that may help explain later differences in cognition, learning and sensory processing.

There's a new level of detail here that had never existed before. For the first time, we can really try to understand systematically what's going on in the developing brain of individuals with Down syndrome."

Luis de la Torre-Ubieta, senior author of the study and a member of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA