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yesterday

Human Brain Develops From Two Distinct Progenitor Lineages

The result overturns the long‑held single‑progenitor view and opens a route to make authentic hindbrain motor neurons for disease study.

A Stanford-led study suggests the brain begins developing from two distinct types of early cells, challenging a long-held view of how the organ forms.

Overview

  • A peer‑reviewed paper published Sept. 18, 2026, reports that forebrain/midbrain and hindbrain tissues arise from two mutually exclusive progenitor populations marked by Otx2 and Gbx2.
  • Those progenitors show different chromatin landscapes that lock cells onto separate fates early in gastrulation, which explains why prior attempts to make hindbrain neurons from anterior progenitors failed.
  • Using the developmental program defined by Otx2 and Gbx2, the Stanford‑led team for the first time coaxed human pluripotent stem cells to become functional hindbrain motor neurons in vitro.
  • The lab model creates new ways to study brainstem disorders such as spinal muscular atrophy and ALS because hindbrain motor neurons control swallowing and breathing and were previously hard to obtain from patients.
  • Authors stress an important caveat that a very brief common progenitor period cannot be fully excluded and say follow‑up work will probe spinal cord origins and use the new cells to study disease mechanisms and therapies.