Paola Arlotta

Paola Arlotta (born 1971) is the Golub Family Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at Harvard University and chair of the Harvard Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology (HSCRB). Her research focuses on the development of neuron types in the cerebral cortex. She is best known for her work using 3D cerebral organoids derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to study cortical development in neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disorders. She earned an M.S. in biochemistry from the University of Trieste and her Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Portsmouth in 2000. She then completed her postdoctoral research at Harvard Medical School under the mentorship of Jeffrey Macklis at Harvard Medical School. She worked in both Boston Children's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital studying neurogenesis and CNS repair. She was also an instructor in Neurosurgery at Harvard Medical School until 2007. She became the Morris Kahn Associate Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology as well as a Faculty at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. She was promoted to the Golub Family Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at Harvard. In 2018, Arlotta was appointed the Chair of the Stem Cell Biology and was appointed to the Quantitative Biology Executive Council. She also served on the Life Sciences jury for the Infosys Prize in 2019.

Career and research Arlotta's research focuses on understanding the molecular factors guiding the birth, differentiation and assembly of neurons in the cerebral cortex. Her lab develops in vitro models of human cortical development and pathology using 3D cerebral organoids.

In addition to her positions in the Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at Harvard, Arlotta is also an Institute Member at the Broad Institute, an associate member of the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute, and a principal faculty member at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, where she is also co-director of the neuroscience program.

Awards and honors Pradel Research Award (2024) George Ledlie Prize George Ledlie Prize by the President and Fellows of Harvard College Elected a Member of the National Academy of Medicine (2024) Elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2024

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