Deciphering the Genetic Instructions for Brain Development

Our genome is like a large book – containing all the instructions for life, but susceptible to changes over time as well as spelling mistakes.

Associate Professor Louise Bicknell, University of Otago Department of Pathology gives an overview of her research focusing on studying the major 'spelling mistakes' that affect the brain, explaining the consequences these can have for brain growth and health in children, but also the enormous power such ‘typos’ have to reveal novel insights into the development of this complicated organ.

One-in-a-million, these are the children Associate Professor Louise Bicknell works with. There could be only one in all of New Zealand, or the world, at any given time with a very specific genetic condition. This is the work Associate Professor Bicknell’s lab concentrates on. The Bicknell Lab, partly funded by the Broad Family Trust through the Neurological Foundation, focuses on understanding how the genetic variation present in our genomes can shape or influence genetic conditions.