Dr. Su-Chun Zhang is professor of neuroscience and neurology at the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute. His laboratory focuses on addressing how functionally diversified brain cell subtypes are born in the building and rebuilding of the human brain. Dr. Zhang has successfully directed human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) to form functionally specialized brain cells, including cortical glutamate neurons and GABA interneurons, striatal medium spiny neurons, midbrain dopamine neurons, oligodendrocytes and region-specific astrocyte subtypes. He has also developed technology for producing genetically matched hPSC strains and assembling neural tissues by organoids and 3D bioprinting. Using these tools, he is dissecting the molecular processes underlying neurodegeneration.