Paola Arlotta

She has said she was born in a small town of about 2,000 people in northeastern Italy, on the border with Slovenia, and was a first-generation college student set on the path to research by her high school science teacher, Vecchia; her husband is Claudio, and they have two children.⁠[1]

She earned an M.S. in biochemistry from the University of Trieste in Italy and a PhD in molecular biology from the University of Portsmouth in the UK, then did postdoctoral work in developmental neurobiology at Harvard Medical School.⁠[1]

On January 20, 2005, she was first author, with Jeffrey Macklis and others, of a Neuron paper that purified corticospinal motor neurons at distinct developmental stages, compared their gene expression and showed that the gene Ctip2 is critical for the development of their axonal projections to the spinal cord.⁠[2]

She has been a principal faculty member of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute since 2007; her lab, rooted in the development of the mouse cerebral cortex, later turned to building in vitro models resembling the cellular complexity, tissue architecture and local connectivity of the developing human cortex.⁠[3]

In 2011, four years after founding her lab, she received a NYSCF–Robertson Stem Cell Investigator grant from the New York Stem Cell Foundation; she said it let her move from basic developmental neurobiology to studying the human brain and disease: “The word ‘disease’ was not in my program before.”⁠[4]

In January 2013, then an associate professor, she and postdoc Caroline Rouaux published a Nature Cell Biology study in which they used the transcription factor Fezf2 to turn callosal projection neurons, which connect the two brain hemispheres, into neurons similar to corticospinal motor neurons in the brains of young mice; she said this showed the brain is “not as immutable as we always thought.”⁠[5]

In 2014 she was promoted to professor in Harvard’s Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology; she is also affiliated with the Center for Brain Science and the Conte Center at Harvard.⁠[3]

In April 2014 a study she led with Jeff Lichtman showed that the more evolved neurons in the upper layers of the cerebral cortex have less myelin and a previously unseen “intermittent myelin” pattern, challenging the textbook view of uniform myelin distribution along axons.⁠[6]

She received Harvard’s 2017 George Ledlie Prize, the Fannie Cox Prize for excellence in science teaching, the Humboldt Foundation’s 2018 Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award and a 2019 Harvard College Professorship.⁠[7]

On May 4, 2017, she was senior author of a Nature study that analyzed gene expression in more than 80,000 cells from 31 human brain organoids, finding that organoids generate diverse cells including cortical and retinal cells, form spontaneously active networks after more than nine months, and can have their neuronal activity controlled by light stimulation of photosensitive cells.⁠[8]

On September 20, 2018, the deans of Harvard Medical School and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences announced that she, the Golub Family Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, would chair the cross-school department effective September 1, with Amy Wagers as co-chair; she said, “To do great things, sometimes we need to take big risks.”⁠[9]

In June 2019 she was senior author of a Nature paper describing a method that grows human brain organoids which consistently produce the same cell types, in the same order, as the developing human cerebral cortex; she said that until then each organoid had been “its own snowflake,” making reliable comparison of diseased and control tissue difficult.⁠[10]

She appeared on a Lex FridmanLex FridmanLex Fridman is a Soviet-born, US-raised computer scientist and podcast host who works as an MIT research scientist on human-AI interaction and autonomous driving. His Lex Fridman Podcast is known for hours-long conversations with guests including heads of state and technology leaders.Open the full entry Podcast episode titled “Brain Development from Stem Cell to Organoid”; the description says she studies the molecular laws governing the birth, differentiation and assembly of the human cerebral cortex and explores the brain’s complexity by studying and engineering how it develops.⁠[11]

In February 2022 her team published a Nature study showing that introducing mutations in three autism risk genes, SUV420H1, ARID1B and CHD8, into brain organoids revealed that they affect the same types of neurons and similar developmental processes through distinct molecular mechanisms.⁠[12]

In April 2024 she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of 250 members elected that year.⁠[13]

On April 30, 2024, the Graduate School of Systemic Neurosciences at LMU Munich awarded her an honorary Doctor of Philosophy for her groundbreaking work developing brain organoids from human stem cells; she gave the keynote lecture at that year’s Munich Brain Day.⁠[14]

In October 2024 she was one of 100 new members elected to the National Academy of Medicine, recognized for pioneering the development and application of brain organoids and for foundational work on human brain formation and neurological disease.⁠[15]

In 2025 she and eight other Harvard faculty members were elected to the National Academy of Sciences.⁠[16]

In September 2026 she, YaleYale UniversityYale University is a research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Its predecessor, the Collegiate School, received a charter in 1701. Trustees chose New Haven in 1716; the institution became Yale College in 1718 and Yale University in 1887. Yale provides undergraduate, graduate and professional education and has 14 undergraduate residential colleges. As of October 2026, its president was Maurie McInnis, who took office in July 2024. In 2026, Yale expanded aid for incoming undergraduates and celebrated its 325th anniversary.Open the full entry’s Nenad Sestan and others received a $46 million award from the philanthropic initiative Aligning Research to Impact Autism (ARIA), and she co-leads its new Human Developmental Neurobiology Hub, where her lab will grow brain organoids from patients’ stem cells to study how autism emerges in the developing brain; she called the scale “unprecedented.”⁠[17]

As of October 2026 her lab page lists her as Golub Family Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, principal faculty at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, an institute member of the Broad Institute and past chair of the department; building on mouse work, the lab studies human cortical development and neurodevelopmental disease in 3D cortical organoids of unprecedented complexity and reproducibility.⁠[18]

Personal website: Public link: https://hscrb.harvard.edu/res-fl-arlotta (opens in a new window)⁠[3]

Harvard University: Official website: https://www.harvard.edu/ (opens in a new window)⁠[15]

Broad Institute: Official website: https://www.broadinstitute.org/ (opens in a new window)⁠[18]