Title:	Adult Human Striatal Neurogenesis
DNr:	Berzelius-2026-61
Project Type:	LiU Berzelius
Principal Investigator:	Jonas Frisén <jonas.frisen@ki.se>
Affiliation:	Karolinska Institutet
Duration:	2026-03-05 – 2026-10-01
Classification:	30108
Keywords:

Abstract

Adult human neurogenesis remains poorly understood, particularly in the subventricular zone (SVZ) and the adjacent striatum, where neural stem cells and progenitors are proposed to generate new neurons throughout life. The aim of this project is to identify and molecularly characterize rare neural progenitor populations in the human striatum, define their lineage relationships, and reconstruct their spatial organization within the neurogenic niche. To achieve this, we integrate large-scale single-nucleus RNA sequencing (snRNA-seq) with high-resolution spatial transcriptomics data (10x Genomics Visium and Visium HD) from postmortem human brain tissue across developmental stages and adulthood. The project combines experimental profiling with advanced computational approaches to detect rare progenitors, reconstruct differentiation trajectories, and map their interactions with surrounding cell types within the striatal niche. The resulting multimodal datasets are computationally demanding and require GPU-accelerated analysis, including deep generative models for data integration (scVI/scANVI), machine-learning–based rare-cell classification, trajectory inference, and spatial mapping. This work will provide the first high-confidence molecular and spatial characterization of neural progenitors in the adult human striatum, advancing our understanding of human brain plasticity and establishing computational frameworks broadly applicable to rare-cell discovery in complex tissues.