Developmental Biology Program

The Thomas Vierbuchen Lab

Thomas S. Vierbuchen, PhD

Assistant Professor

The Vierbuchen laboratory seeks to elucidate fundamental mechanisms governing the production of the myriad neuronal cell types required to build functioning neural circuits. To model these dynamic developmental processes, we direct the differentiation of mouse and human pluripotent stem cells into specific neuronal cell types in a dish. This reductionist system allows us to recapitulate neural tube patterning and neuronal differentiation under controlled conditions and at a scale that makes it possible to use genetic screens, genomics, and systems genetics to characterize the underlying cell signaling and gene regulatory processes with unprecedented resolution. In the long term, we will apply these insights to better understand the complex genetic underpinnings of psychiatric and neurodegenerative disease.

Featured News

Once a Patient, Now a Scientist Seeking Answers: At Work with Developmental Biologist Thomas Vierbuchen

Meet Thomas Vierbuchen, a developmental biologist who uses stem cells to understand brain development.

Publications Highlights

Glenn RA, Do SC, Guruvayurappan K, Corrigan EK, Santini L, Medina-Cano D, Singer S, Cho H, Liu J, Broman K, Czechanski A, Reinholdt L, Koche R, Furuta Y, Kunz M, Vierbuchen T.(2024) A PLURIPOTENT STEM CELL PLATFORM FOR IN VITRO SYSTEMS GENETICS STUDIES OF MOUSE DEVELOPMENT. bioRxiv. doi: 10.1101/2024.06.06.597758.

Medina-Cano D, Corrigan EK, Glenn RA, Islam MT, Lin Y, Kim J, Cho H, Vierbuchen T. (2022) Rapid and robust directed differentiation of mouse epiblast stem cells into definitive endoderm and forebrain organoids. Development. doi: 10.1242/dev.200561.

Yang MG, Ling E, Cowley CJ, Greenberg ME, Vierbuchen T. (2022) Characterization of sequence determinants of enhancer function using natural genetic variation. Elife. doi: 10.7554/eLife.76500.

Marty G Yang, Emi Ling, Christopher J Cowley, Michael E Greenberg, Thomas Vierbuchen. Characterization of sequence determinants of enhancer function using natural genetic variation. eLife 11:e76500. (2022)

Daniel Medina-Cano, Emily K. Corrigan, Rachel A. Glenn, Mohammed T. Islam, Yuan Lin, Juliet Kim, Hyunwoo Cho, Thomas Vierbuchen; Rapid and robust directed differentiation of mouse epiblast stem cells into definitive endoderm and forebrain organoids. Development 2022; dev.200561. doi: https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.200561

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People

Thomas S. Vierbuchen, PhD

Assistant Professor

The Vierbuchen laboratory directs the differentiation of mouse and human pluripotent stem cells to characterize fundamental mechanisms of neuronal cell fate specification and function.
PhD, Stanford University School of Medicine

[email protected]: Email Address

Members

Ann Kabuki Baako
Graduate Student, Weill Cornell Neuroscience program

Zerina Balic
Graduate Student, Weill Cornell BCMB program

Natalia Bonilla

Sr. Administrative Assistant

Rachel Glenn
Graduate Student, Weill Cornell BCMB program

Mohammed T. Islam
Graduate Student, Gerstner Sloan Kettering Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences

Rena Park

MSK Bridge Program Scholar

Ragavi Vijayakumar

Graduate Student, Weill Cornell BCMB program

Lab Alumni

Emily Corrigan
Current Position: Graduate Student, UCSF

Lab Affiliations

Achievements

Josie Robertson Investigator (2018-2023)
David Hubel Award, Neurobiology Department, Harvard Medical School (2017)
HHMI Fellow of the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation (2014-2018)
Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award (2013)
Collegiate Inventors Competition (Finalist, 2010)

Lab News & Events

Accolades

Team Recognitions

Rachel Glenn, T32 in Developmental and Stem Cell Biology (2022-2024)
Ann K. Baako, MERIT Mandel Predoctoral Fellowship (2023)
Daniel Medina Cano, NYSTEM Training Award at Center for Stem Cell Biology (2020-2022)
Yuan Lin, NYSTEM Training Award at Center for Stem Cell Biology (2022)
Rachel Glenn, National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship - Honorable Mention (2021)

Open Positions

To learn more about available postdoctoral opportunities, please visit our Career Center

To learn more about compensation and benefits for postdoctoral researchers at MSK, please visit Resources for Postdocs

Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Fellows

Apply now

Postdoctoral Fellow

We are seeking to recruit a postdoctoral fellow to lead inter-disciplinary collaborative projects jointly supervised by Dr. Dey and Dr. Vierbuchen.

Apply now

Get in Touch

[email protected]

Lab Head Email

Disclosures

Doctors and faculty members often work with pharmaceutical, device, biotechnology, and life sciences companies, and other organizations outside of MSK, to find safe and effective cancer treatments, to improve patient care, and to educate the health care community.

MSK requires doctors and faculty members to report (“disclose”) the relationships and financial interests they have with external entities. As a commitment to transparency with our community, we make that information available to the public.

Thomas S. Vierbuchen discloses the following relationships and financial interests:

No disclosures meeting criteria for time period

The information published here is a complement to other publicly reported data and is for a specific annual disclosure period. There may be differences between information on this and other public sites as a result of different reporting periods and/or the various ways relationships and financial interests are categorized by organizations that publish such data.

This page and data include information for a specific MSK annual disclosure period (January 1, 2023 through disclosure submission in spring 2024). This data reflects interests that may or may not still exist. This data is updated annually.

Learn more about MSK’s COI policies here. For questions regarding MSK’s COI-related policies and procedures, email MSK’s Compliance Office at [email protected].

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