Topic: microglia-assembled retinal organoids

Viral infection-induced inflammation during pregnancy has been associated to malformations of the fetal brain. Microglia, the brain-resident macrophages, respond to inflammatory signals and at the same time are actively involved in various aspects of brain development. We know surprisingly little about how microglia balance the different demands during human embryonic development and which functional consequences an inflammatory environment has on neuronal organization and connectivity. Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) provide a unique opportunity to investigate this relationship.H