About

Dr. Madeline Lancaster is a developmental biologist and group leader at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, United Kingdom. Her research group aims to unravel the general principles of brain evolution, focusing on human brain development, as well as studying neurological diseases that involve defects in brain size.

Madeline received her first degree in biochemistry from Occidental College in Los Angeles and then pursued a PhD in biomedical sciences in the laboratory of Joseph Gleeson at the University of California, San Diego. She trained as a postdoctoral fellow with Jürgen Knoblich at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna. Madeline was a recipient of an EMBO, Helen Hay Whitney and Marie Curie Incoming Fellowships, and in 2014 her work was recognised when she was awarded the Eppendorf Award for Young Investigators. In Organovir, Madeline is a member of the Advisory Board. You can watch her TedTalk on brain organoids here.

About the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology

The MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) is a research institute dedicated to the understanding of important biological processes at the levels of atoms, molecules, cells and organisms. In doing so, the LMB provides knowledge needed to solve key problems in human health.

LMB’s scientists tackle fundamental, often difficult and long-term research problems. The LMB has made revolutionary contributions to science, such as pioneering X-ray crystallography and electron cryo-microscopy (cryo-EM) to determine protein structures, the sequencing of DNA and the development of monoclonal antibodies. Twelve Nobel Prizes have been awarded for work carried out by LMB scientists.