Shani Stern

Congratulations to Shani Stern, Zuckerman Faculty Scholar at the University of Haifa, and head of the Stern’s Lab for Precision Disease Modeling on the publication of “Disrupted WWOX-MYC interplay impairs neurogenesis in human brain organoids” in Brain. Using human brain organoids derived from stem cells, her study maps how mutations in the WWOX gene disrupt early brain development in rare neurodevelopmental disorders.

Abstract:
WOREE and SCAR12 syndromes are rare neurodevelopmental disorders caused by WWOX mutations, severely impairing brain development. The pleiotropic nature of WWOX complicates identifying specific mechanisms, thus, the specific molecular pathways affected by WWOX deficiency and how they contribute to disease pathogenesis remain largely unknown.