During human development, stem cells differentiate into many different cell types that build and determine the function of complex organs. Previous studies have provided only limited insights into the genetic programs that control organ development. By adapting the methodology of single cell transcriptomics analysis, junior scientist Prof. Dr. Barbara Treutlein from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig for the first time made it possible to perform genome-wide measurements of genetic expression in unprecedented resolution on the single cell level. In her research, she applies this method to understand the genetic foundations of organogenesis, i.e. the process by which cells differentiate into organs, and to make possible their in-vitro recreation under controlled conditions. In her lab, Dr. Treutlein grows hepatic and cerebral organoids and compares them with real organ tissue.

Barbara Treutlein was nominated for the Friedmund Neumann Prize 2016 by Prof. Dr. Svante Pääbo, director of the Department of Evolutionary Genetics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology: “Barbara Treutlein uses new techniques in a brilliant and creative way to find answers to fundamental questions of developmental and neuro-biology. Thanks to her, we have gained several new insights into how a fertilized egg cell develops into an individual with functioning tissues and a brain.”