Nenad Sestan, MD, PhD
Harvey and Kate Cushing Professor of Neuroscience, and Professor of Comparative Medicine, of Genetics and of PsychiatryCards
About
Research
Publications
2026
388 A Stepwise Functional Genomics Approach Identifies Genetic Disruption of Prenatal Brain Angiogenesis and Blood Flow in Cerebral Palsy
Le H, Saggi S, Crouch E, Sestan N, Rakic P, Phan D. 388 A Stepwise Functional Genomics Approach Identifies Genetic Disruption of Prenatal Brain Angiogenesis and Blood Flow in Cerebral Palsy. Neurosurgery 2026, 72: 107-108. DOI: 10.1227/neu.0000000000003964_388.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchNeMO Analytics: a compendium of transcriptomic data for the exploration of neocortical development
Sonthalia S, Herb B, Adkins R, Orvis J, Li G, Liao X, Yu Q, Blanco X, Casella A, Liu J, Stein-O’Brien G, Caffo B, Hertzano R, Mahurkar A, Xu J, Gillis J, Werner J, Ma S, Kim S, Micali N, Sestan N, Rakic P, Santpere G, Ament S, Colantuoni C. NeMO Analytics: a compendium of transcriptomic data for the exploration of neocortical development. Nature Neuroscience 2026, 1-14. PMID: 41882195, DOI: 10.1038/s41593-026-02204-4.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchNeocortical developmentRadial gliaIn vivo developmentTranscriptome dataIn vitro modelVentricular progenitorsExcitatory neuronsNeocortical neurogenesisNeuronal maturationTranscriptomic programsIn vitroPeak expressionProtracted maturationCerebral organoidsTranscriptome dynamicsHuman dataTranscription factorsAdaptive evolution of gene regulatory networks in mammalian neocortex
Li Z, Kaur N, Santpere G, Muchnik S, Sindhu S, Qi C, Shibata M, Clément O, Klarić T, de Martin X, Luria V, Cho H, Li M, Shibata A, Choi S, Kim H, Tebbenkamp A, Ma S, Han W, Kim S, Pochareddy S, Duy P, Xing X, Bao Y, Xu X, Gladwyn-Ng I, Cullen H, Paolino A, Fenlon L, Kozulin P, Suárez R, Risgaard R, Gulden F, Karger A, Suzuki I, Hirata T, Gobeske K, Richards L, Sousa A, Heng J, Sestan N. Adaptive evolution of gene regulatory networks in mammalian neocortex. Nature 2026, 1-11. PMID: 41851468, DOI: 10.1038/s41586-026-10226-y.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchCis-regulatory elementsAdaptive evolutionEvolution of gene regulatory networksPutative cis-regulatory elementsGene expressionGene regulatory networksLandscape of gene expressionAssociated with genesTarget gene expressionModern reptilesHighest conservationRegulatory networksBinding motifRegulatory nodesPrefrontal cortexEvolutionary adaptationIntellectual disabilityMolecular diversityBrain connectivityExcitatory projection neuronsZBTB18Complex brainsProjection neuronsMammalsBrainHuman-specific features of the cerebellum and ZP2-regulated synapse development
Kim S, Cherskov A, Sindhwani A, Choi S, Kim H, Li M, Zhang M, Mato-Blanco X, Liu Y, Micali N, Young D, Estacion M, Zhang Y, Ruiz-Jiménez J, Nadkarni A, Luria V, Sindhu S, Chatterjee I, Shibata A, Liang D, Cho H, Park S, Spajic A, Kovner R, Glavan M, Chen R, Risgaard R, Li X, Pochareddy S, Karger A, Huttner A, Morozov Y, Daadi E, Colantuoni C, Gobeske K, Ely J, Hof P, Daadi M, Sherwood C, Duque A, Ma S, Sousa A, Waxman S, Rakic P, Santpere G, Sanders S, Sestan N. Human-specific features of the cerebellum and ZP2-regulated synapse development. Cell 2026, 189: 1802-1819.e28. PMID: 41819103, DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2026.02.014.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchConceptsHuman granule cellsZona pellucida glycoprotein 2Granule cellsNeuronal electrophysiological activityAdult cerebellar cortexSynapse regulationCognitive functionGlomerular synapsesNon-human primatesCerebellar cortexMotor coordinationMossy fibersGamete interactionGlycoprotein 2Human brainSynapse developmentSynaptic proteinsElectrophysiological activityHuman cerebellumEvolutionary developmentHuman-specific featuresCo-optionCerebellumHuman adaptationChromatin accessibility profilesEndovascular thrombectomy for acute stroke: evolving eligibility criteria and adjunct therapies
Glavan M, Liu J, Sampaio Silva G, Nguyen T, Zhou J, Sestan N, Kimberly W, Sheth K. Endovascular thrombectomy for acute stroke: evolving eligibility criteria and adjunct therapies. The Lancet Neurology 2026, 25: 61-76. PMID: 41389830, DOI: 10.1016/s1474-4422(25)00356-4.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchConceptsEndovascular thrombectomyRisk of poor clinical outcomesEligibility criteriaPoor clinical outcomesIntra-arterial thrombolysisCause of disabilityMechanism of actionAdjunctive therapyClinical outcomesStandard treatmentMicrovascular obstructionPoor outcomePatient populationRandomised trialsLarge-vesselSecondary complicationsClinical translationCytoprotective agentInclusion criteriaPatientsIschaemic strokeThrombectomyAcute strokeTranslational successOxidative stress
2025
PsychENCODE at 10: From genomic maps to mechanistic insights in mental illness
Roussos P, Vaccarino F, Weng Z, Sestan N, Gerstein M, Geschwind D. PsychENCODE at 10: From genomic maps to mechanistic insights in mental illness. Neuron 2025, 113: 4099-4102. PMID: 41412064, DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2025.11.027.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchSpatial dynamics of brain development and neuroinflammation
Zhang D, Rubio Rodríguez-Kirby L, Lin Y, Wang W, Song M, Wang L, Wang L, Kanatani S, Jimenez-Beristain T, Dang Y, Zhong M, Kukanja P, Bao S, Wang S, Chen X, Gao F, Wang D, Xu H, Ma C, Lou X, Liu Y, Chen J, Sestan N, Uhlén P, Kriegstein A, Zhao H, Castelo-Branco G, Fan R. Spatial dynamics of brain development and neuroinflammation. Nature 2025, 647: 213-227. PMID: 41193846, PMCID: PMC12589135, DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09663-y.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchConceptsBrain developmentPostnatal day 0Chromatin accessibilitySpatial dynamicsTranscription factorsOmics informationMyelin genesDevelopmental processesProjection neuronsNeuroinflammation mouse modelMolecular programsMouse modelDisease-related alterationsTransient activationLesion coreCorpus callosumMultiplexed immunofluorescence imagesSequenceDevelopmental timepointsSpatial remodelingDay 0Mouse brainDynamics of brain developmentImmunofluorescence imagingNeuroinflammationThe new frontier in understanding human and mammalian brain development
Nowakowski T, Nano P, Matho K, Chen X, Corrigan E, Ding W, Gao Y, Heffel M, Jayakumar J, Kaplan H, Kronman F, Kovner R, Mannens C, Song M, Steyert M, Venkatesan S, Wallace J, Wang L, Werner J, Zhang D, Yuan G, Zuo G, Ament S, Colantuoni C, Dulac C, Fan R, Gillis J, Kriegstein A, Krienen F, Kim Y, Linnarsson S, Mitra P, Pollen A, Sestan N, Tward D, van Velthoven C, Yao Z, Bhaduri A, Zeng H. The new frontier in understanding human and mammalian brain development. Nature 2025, 647: 51-59. PMID: 41193845, DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09652-1.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchConceptsMammalian brain developmentTranscriptional controlControl of cell fate specificationAttention deficit hyperactivity disorderBrain developmentMeasurement of gene expressionCell fate specificationDeficit hyperactivity disorderCross-species integrationCell-type abundanceMechanisms of brain functionHyperactivity disorderNeuropsychiatric disordersFate specificationModel organismsWhole-brainNon-human primatesBrain functionComprehensive cell atlasCell atlasNeurodevelopmental disordersDisease vulnerabilityGene expressionMotor impairmentHuman brainUnique and divergent features of human brain development
Salamon I, Doyle D, Bandler R, Pattabiraman K, Sestan N. Unique and divergent features of human brain development. Current Opinion In Neurobiology 2025, 95: 103133. PMID: 41187489, PMCID: PMC12626412, DOI: 10.1016/j.conb.2025.103133.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchConceptsBrain developmentHuman brain developmentAnthropoid primatesHuman brain evolutionClaims of human uniquenessNoninvasive brain imagingHuman phenotypic traitsBrain evolutionHuman uniquenessHuman brainBrain imagingDivergent featuresEvolutionary hypothesesFeatures of human brain developmentMorphological adaptationsHuman-specificEvolutionary historyBrainHuman experienceGenotype-to-phenotype relationshipsEarly developmental origins of cortical disorders modeled in human neural stem cells
Mato-Blanco X, Kim S, Jourdon A, Ma S, Choi S, Giani A, Paredes M, Tebbenkamp A, Liu F, Duque A, Vaccarino F, Sestan N, Colantuoni C, Rakic P, Santpere G, Micali N. Early developmental origins of cortical disorders modeled in human neural stem cells. Nature Communications 2025, 16: 6347. PMID: 40634286, PMCID: PMC12241556, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-61316-w.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchConceptsSingle-cell transcriptomicsNeural stem cellsNeural stem cell lineage commitmentGene regulatory networksEarly developmental originHuman neural stem cellsRegulatory networksExpression dynamicsRisk genesStem cellsCortical disordersTransition in vitroTelencephalic developmentEarly phaseGene dysfunctionLineage commitmentCell trajectoriesHuman corticogenesisHuman brain dysfunctionGenesNSCs in vitroMultiple diseasesIn vivoBrain dysfunctionCorticogenesis
Academic Achievements & Community Involvement
News & Links
News
- October 23, 2025
2025 Yale-KU Forum: Clinical and Basic Neuroscience
- July 10, 2024
Highlighting Yale’s Neuroscience Research
- July 03, 2024
Bandler Honored with 2024 National Institute of Mental Health Outstanding Resident Award
- October 26, 2023Source: Yale News
Researchers Identify Key Genes in the Development of the Primate Brain
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New Haven, CT 06520-8001
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