Under the support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 32230040), the research team led by Jianwei Jiao from the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with Ji Dong's team from Guangzhou National Laboratory, Peng Du's team and Lei Jin's team from Peking University, has made progress in deciphering the spatiotemporal transcriptome atlas of the developing human brain. The research achievement titled "Spatiotemporal transcriptome atlas reveals the regional specification of the developing human brain" was published online in Cell on December 12, 2023. The link to the paper is: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2023.11.016.

The brain is the most important organ in the human body, controlling various aspects such as thinking, memory, emotions, and movement, with complex functionality. In recent years, with the continuous innovation and advancement of single-cell sequencing technology, a series of single-cell sequencing studies on the developing human brain have emerged. However, spatial omics-related research on the human brain is still relatively lacking, and the published works often only involve studies at early developmental time points.

Jianwei Jiao and his collaborative research team have deciphered the high-resolution spatiotemporal transcriptome atlas of the human brain, covering the widest developmental period (GW6-GW23) and the largest area (up to 4cm x 3cm) to date. The study identified and demonstrated various radial glial cell subtypes with specific spatial distribution characteristics in early development, revealing that these heterogeneous subtypes contribute to the subsequent specialization of neurons in different brain regions. It was also discovered that the interaction between glial cells and neurons promotes the regional specialization of neurons (Figure 1).

This research provides transcriptomic information resources for a deeper understanding of human brain development, the regional specialization of neurons, and related diseases, thus providing a spatial omics basis for clinical treatment of brain disorders.

Figure 1. Spatiotemporal transcriptome atlas of human brain (scRNA-seq across multiple brain regions spanning GW6 to GW23).