Dr. Sumin Jang is a Postdoctoral Fellow working with Dr. Hynek Wichterle at Columbia University. Her research interest revolves around identifying mechanisms that lead to changes in the size- and time-scales of neurodevelopment across species. During her graduate studies in Dr. Sharad Ramanathan’s lab at Harvard University, Dr. Jang worked on modeling early germ layer differentiation and the underlying gene regulatory network from single-cell RNA-seq data. As a postdoc, Dr. Jang is investigating cellular, molecular and genomic differences between human, non-human primate and rodent motor neuron differentiation. Her research revealed that a newly evolved progenitor domain that is present in human but not mouse leads to protracted motor neurogenesis and increased motor neuron production. As part of her NIH BRAIN Initiative project, Dr. Jang will investigate how these progenitors are specified in a species-dependent manner, as well as determine whether they give rise to motor neuron subtypes that are specific to humans and primates.