Two neural ectoderm progenitors in brain development

How it unfolded

1. Sep 18, 2026Stanford Medicine researchers report in Nature Neuroscience that the forebrain and hindbrain arise from separate progenitor cells, recasting the brain as two neural systems.
2. Sep 18, 2026In mouse embryos at gastrulation, the team identifies two progenitor populations: one expressing Otx2, destined to become forebrain and midbrain, and one expressing Gbx2, committed to the hindbrain; the two never overlap.
3. Sep 18, 2026Human pluripotent stem cells differentiated into anterior or posterior neural ectoderm-like cells were lineage committed to forebrain/midbrain versus hindbrain fates, and researchers generated hindbrain rhombomere 5/6-specific motor neurons that were hitherto difficult to make in vitro.