• February 28, 2025: The lab is praised by the Office of Sustainability for its participation in the UCSF Lab Plastics Recycling Program

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• November 15, 2024: Sara Nolbrant and Jenelle Wallace release BioRxiv pre-print for their groundbreaking manuscript titled Interspecies Organoids Reveal Human-Specific Molecular Features of Dopaminergic Neuron Development and Vulnerability. This work was featured in a Nature news article with receptive comments from Nenad Sestan and Andre Sousa. 

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• November 4, 2024: The lab welcomes Dr. Lauretta El Hayek following her PhD at University of Texas Southwestern. 

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• October 1, 2024: The lab welcomes Dr. Mélise Edwards following her PhD at University of Massachusetts, Amherst. 

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• August 30, 2024: Alongside Dr. Tomasz Nowakowski and Dr. Jonathan Sebat, the lab is grateful to receive grant funding from the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). For the lab, the funding is a collaboration between UCSF, UC Santa Cruz, and UC Berkeley, organized by qb3 (California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences).

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• August 12, 2024: We welcome Dr. Enakshi Sinniah to the lab following her PhD at University of Queensland

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• July 30, 2024: Emily Corrigan releases a preprint of her work regarding mammalian striatal interneurons. This paper is in collaboration with Aunoy Poddar of Mercedes Paredes' lab, Corey Harwell, and Fenna Krienen. 

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• July 1, 2024: We welcome PhD candidates Megan Ostrowski and Andrew Cesiulis, and postdoctoral fellow Dr. Nicelio Sanchez-Luege to the lab. 

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• March 1, 2024: Beatriz Alvarado performs her exit talk for her dissertation. Dr. Alvarado will continue her work at Scribe Biosciences.

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• February 12, 2024: We welcome Kaylynn Hoglin, research associate, to the lab

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• January 26, 2024: Tyler Fair performs his exit talk for his dissertation. Dr. Fair will be continuing his work at the Arc Institute in Palo Alto, CA.

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• December 28, 2023: Tyler Fair, Bryan Pavlovic, and Nathan Schaefer release BioRxiv pre-print for their work mapping cis- and trans-regulatory target genes of human-specific deletions. 

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• December 2023: In collaboration with Dr. Trygve Bakken and Dr. Matthew Schmitz at the Allen Institute in Seattle, WA, the lab is honored to receive funding from the W.M. Keck Foundation. This research, as described in the published abstract, will explore molecular and functional specializations of cetacean cells to reveal cellular adaptations to large brain size, long lifespan, and low oxygen environments. 

 

• November 23, 2023: Jenelle and Alex review the mechanisms of protracted neuronal maturation in humans

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• November 15, 2023: Team Brainz finally beats Team Miracle on Splice at Ballast Point Trivia. 

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• October 16, 2023: We welcome Dr. Jessie Brunner to the lab following her PhD at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

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• August 8, 2023: Alex writes review of cortical progenitor diversity and evolution with postdoc mentor, Arnold Kriegstein

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• August 4, 2023: Matthew Schmitz performs his exit talk for his dissertation, becoming the first PhD candidate to graduate from the Pollen Lab. Dr. Schmitz will be continuing his work at the Allen Institute in Seattle, WA.  

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• June 20, 2023: Tyler Fair, Nathan Schaefer, and Bryan Pavlovic partner with Jonathan Weissman, exploring the extent and identity of human-specific genetic dependencies.

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• May 25, 2023: Congratulations to Emily on passing qualifying exams!

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• April 28, 2023: Partnered with Ahituv and Pollard lab to study relationship between human accelerated regions and genomic structural variation

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• March 30, 2023: Led by Tyler Fair, we provide perspective outlining multiple entry points for studying the molecular basis of human brain evolution

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• March 28, 2023: Congratulations to Emily Corrigan for being awarded the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship

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• March 22, 2023: Congratulations to Jingwen on passing qualifying exams!

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• February 3, 2023: Review on genetic and cellular approaches to studying human-specific evolution with Umut Kilik, Craig Lowe, and Gray Camp

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• January 13, 2023: Partnered with Ahituv and Pollard lab to study the cis-regulatory potential of human accelerated regions in human and chimpanzee neural progenitor cells

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• September 26, 2022: News and Views with Jingwen Ding, highlighting a study showing the function of ARHGAP11B in organoid models

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• August 2022: We welcome Jingwen Ding, PhD candidate, and Dani Swope, research associate, to the lab

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• June 2022: We welcome Emily Corrigan, PhD candidate, to the lab

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• March 23, 2022: Led by Matthew Schmitz, we provide a taxonomy of initial classes of mammalian inhibitory neurons and uncover evidence for contrasting developmental mechanisms of primate cell type evolution

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• January 26, 2022: Led by Bryan Pavlovic and Nathan Schaefer, we teamed up with bioethicist Dov Fox to explore the ethics of and propose a nomenclature for composite cell lines generated by interspecies cell fusions.

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• November 30, 2021: Congratulations to Sara Nolbrant on being selected as a California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) Scholar

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• November 11, 2021: Alex speaks (virtually) at Worldwide Neuro and at the University of Georgia Developmental Alliance Symposium​

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• October 19, 2021: Lab receives support from New York Stem Cell Foundation Robertson Investigator Award.

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• October 18, 2021: News and views led by Jenelle Wallace highlight two fascinating papers from Nenad Sestan's lab on cis- and trans-mechanisms contributing to iconic human traits of prefrontal cortex connectivity. 

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• June 7, 2021: Congratulations to Reed on passing qualifying exams!

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• June 3, 2021: Congratulations to Jenelle Wallace on being selected as a Schmidt Science Fellow

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• May 27, 2021: Congratulations to Yash on passing qualifying exams!

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• May 12, 2021: Alex speaks (virtually) at University of Chicago Human Genetics department

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• April 1, 2021: Congratulations to Nathan Schaefer on being selected as an inaugural Weill Neurohub Fellow

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• March 23, 2021: Alex speaks (virtually) at Institute of Science and Technology, Austria Neuroscience Data Talks

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• January 26, 2021: Alex speaks at Expanding Minds Symposium: Allen Institute Conference on Human Brain Evolution

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• November 30, 2020: Alex gives Human Genetics Seminar at Emory

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• September 15, 2020: We welcome Dr. Jenelle Wallace to the lab following her PhD at Harvard University

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• September 14, 2020: Lab selected for the 2020 Shurl & Kay Curci Foundation Faculty Scholars Program award by the Innovative Genomics Institute

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• August 2020: Thrilled to welcome 3 new PhD students to the lab: Arnar Breevoort, Reed McMullen, and Yash Abeykoon

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• May 1, 2020: We welcome Dr. Nathan Schaefer to the lab following his PhD at University of California, Santa Cruz

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• April 1, 2020:  We welcome Dr. Sara Nolbrant to the lab following her PhD at the University of Lund

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• March 2, 2020: Alex speaks at  University of Colorado, Denver to the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics

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• December 10, 2019: Alex speaks at Cold Spring Harbor Development and 3D Modeling of the Human Brain

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• December 3, 2019: Lab published review, Reverse Engineering Human Brain Evolution Using Organoid Models  in Brain Research

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• November 12, 2019: Alex speaks at USC Broad Center Stem Cell Seminar Series

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• October 7, 2019: Alex speaks at the University of Minnesota 28th Annual Developmental Biology Symposium, “New Approaches to Old Questions Organoids and Development”

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• October 1, 2019: Lab receives NIH New Innovator Award to study genetic control of human brain evolution.

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• August, 19, 2019: Congratulations to Mo for his independent article on the role of science in diplomacy and his outreach through Clubes de Ciencia Bolivia

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• July 28, 2019: Congratulations to Tyler on running the SF Marathon

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• May - July 2019: Congratulations to Tyler, Matthew, and Beatriz on passing qualifying exams

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• May 28, 2019: Bryan and Alex preview a comparative study of human and chimpanzee cardiomyocytes

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• May 13, 2019: Ian Fiddes and Alex collaborate with Sikela lab to describe paired human-specific duplication and co-regulation of NBPF and NOTCH2NL genes

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• April 13, 2019: Alex presents in the Duke Developmental and Stem Cell Biology Colloquium series

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• February 11 - 12, 2019: Alex speaks at NYU Neuroscience Institute and participates in Rachel Bandler's successful thesis defense

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• February 7, 2019: Pollen lab and Kriegstein lab publish cover article describing the potential to compare human and ape brain development using stem cell derived organoid models covered here

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• December 3, 2018:  Mo and Alex discuss transplantation studies of human neurons into mouse models

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• December 1, 2018: Sainath joins the lab as a bioinformatician

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• November 1, 2018: We join Haussler, Salama, Teodorescu, and Nowakowski labs on Schmidt Futures Foundation project to study development and evolution of human neural circuits

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• September 26, 2018: Lab receives funding for collaborative project through the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub

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• September 24, 2018: Alex presents at Company of Biologists meeting: From Stem Cells to Human Development

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• September 18, 2018: Lab contributes to Eichler lab study on transcriptional fates of paralogs following human-specific segmental duplications

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• July 7, 2018: Tyler, Matthew, and Beatriz join as the first cohort of graduate students in the lab

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• July 6, 2018: We begin project with Ahituv, Pollard, and Nowakowski labs to link disease risk alleles to cellular and developmental substrates through the PsychEncode program

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• July 5, 2018: Mo and Alex preview a study on specification of deep layer cortical neurons

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• June 7, 2018: Olivia contributes to Eichler lab cover article on de novo assembly of ape genomes and discovery of lineage-specific structural genomic variation​​

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• May 31, 2018: Collaborators in the Salama, Haussler, and Jacobs labs reconstruct genomic events and functional consequences of human-specific NOTCH2NL duplication, side-by-side with Vanderhaegan lab, covered here

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• May 22, 2018: Lab receives funding from Program for Breakthrough 
Biomedical Research at UCSF for project spearheaded by Mo.

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• March 1, 2018: Bryan joins the lab as a postdoc

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• December 8, 2017: Publish paper with Tom Nowakowski, Aparna Bharduri, Beatriz, Mo, and the Kriegstein lab, describing the appearance of area-specific excitatory neurons prior to sensory experience, and how trajectories of neuronal differentiation vary over space and time, covered here.

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• November 9, 2017: Our mission to study the genetic origin of human brain specializations is profiled here along with the efforts of colleagues in the field.

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• October 19, 2017: Alex speaks in  session at ASHG on Novel Insights into Human Brain Evolution from Advanced Genomic organized by Simon Fisher

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• September 1, 2017: We join Nowakowski, Kriegstein and Huang labs on a collaborative BRAIN Initiative Cell Census project focused on charting developmental trajectories

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• June 1, 2017: Lab officially moves into new space in the Dolby Regeneration Medicine Building

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• May 1, 2017: Mo becomes the first postdoc to join the lab.

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• March 1, 2017: Pollen lab officially opens

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• December 1, 2016: Olivia becomes first member to join the lab

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• November 11, 2016: Alex teaches in Society for Neuroscience short course, "Using Single-Cell Genomics to Analyze Neurons, Glia, and Circuits" organized by Steve McCarroll