New £50 million centre will unlock secrets of early brain development

A landmark centre aims to discover exactly how the human brain develops for the very first time.

The new Medical Research Council (MRC) Centre of Research Excellence (CoRE) for Human Neural Development will integrate world-leading expertise with cutting-edge research to fill in major gaps in the fundamental understanding of brain growth and development.

Led by King’s College London, in partnership with University College London (UCL) and the University of Manchester, the key aim is to understand the critical mechanisms underpinning early brain development, from the womb to early childhood, and how their disruption can inform effective treatments.

Until recently, there were very few ways to study the development of the human brain in a meaningful way. Now, using the latest technological developments, including the ability to image the developing brain before and after birth, grow models of brain tissue in the laboratory, and harness the power of artificial intelligence, the centre will provide unprecedented insights into the development of the human cerebral cortex, the region of our brain that enables language, planning and creativity. Using these insights from the laboratory, the centre aims to develop markers of healthy brain development, which can be measured in babies and children to help develop and evaluate treatments in clinic.

Centre lead Professor Oscar Marín, based at King’s College London, said: “The human brain is a bit of a black box.

“We can measure patterns of brain activity from the outside, and we can even potentially connect them to what happens later in life, but we don't yet know how these signals actually relate to what's happening inside the child’s brain.

“This means we cannot tell which signals reflect something important about how the circuits inside the brain are developing. Until we can make that distinction, we cannot reliably predict which children are at risk or intervene early enough to make a difference.

“We have now reached a point where the technologies exist to close that gap, and we can turn that understanding into real differences for children and families.

“The one thing that makes King’s a very special place to tackle this problem is that there are very few places in the world that has this universe of discovery scientists and clinical scientists and facilities that will allow us to bring this program together.”

The centre will use organoid technologies to build human models of brain tissue in the newly established Brain Organoids Laboratory at King’s, which was funded through an initial donation of £1.5m from the Wolfson Foundation in 2024.

This pioneering technology allows researchers Professor Marin and Dr Laura Pellegrini to model how parts of the human brain develop and to tailor their genetic makeup to understand the specific genes involved in neurodevelopmental disorders.

“We have the tools to essentially generate a primordial mini functional tissue that resembles a part of the cerebral cortex. This would help us to understand what goes wrong with, for example, with the cellular architecture in certain diseases,” commented Dr Pellegrini, Wellcome Trust CDA Fellow at King’s, on the doors opened by organoid technologies.

Professor Tomoki Arichi, Professor of Perinatal Neuroscience at King’s, and honorary consultant at the Evelina London Children’s Hospital, will form part of a clinical team collaborating closely with clinical lead Professor Shruti Garg from the University of Manchester to help translate findings from the laboratory into new treatments and improvements in clinical care for children.

Professor Shruti Garg, Centre translational lead and Deputy director, based at The University of Manchester, said: "Working within NHS clinical networks in Manchester, we'll turn discoveries about brain development into tools clinicians can use making a real difference for children and families here and across the country."

Dr Ilias Tachtsidis, Centre Innovation Lead and Deputy Director, based in UCL’s Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, will lead on engineering aspects of the project. He added: "To deliver this ambitious vision of the centre, we need first-of-their-kind technologies that can safely and non-invasively image brain biology across scales—from blood vessels that deliver oxygen and nutrients to brain cells, down to the mitochondria that power them. This is a major engineering challenge we will tackle at UCL."

Professor Emily Jones, Professor of Developmental Translational Neuroscience at King’s, will follow how newly identified markers of healthy brain development translate to developmental outcomes beyond infancy at the new Pears Maudsley Centre for Children and Young People.

When genetic mutations and environmental factors affect brain development in infants, the consequences are felt throughout their life.

These outcomes are disproportionately felt by minorities and families from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.

Dr Ceri Williams, Executive Director of Challenge Led Themes at MRC, said: “We are delighted to announce this new MRC CoRE for Human Neural Development, backed by £50 million of public investment.

“By untangling the mysteries of human brain development in the very early stages, this centre offers a powerful opportunity to transform lives, giving us the tools to make earlier and fairer interventions for a future where every child has the best possible chance to realise their full potential.”