Reproducing Human Brain Development In Vitro: Generating Cerebellar Neurons for Modelling Cerebellar Ataxias

The main purpose of this chapter is to introduce the reader to the complexity of nervous system development, to better understand the huge challenge to faithfully reproduce this system in vitro for the purpose of neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disease modelling. The emphasis in this chapter is on the aspects of embryonic development that are needed to be mimicked in vitro to generate functionally validated neuronal cells. As an example of the latter, a case study of the generation of functionally mature cerebellar neurons from human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) is given.