Developmental Biology Program

The Thomas Vierbuchen Lab

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Research

Thomas Vierbuchen
Thomas S. Vierbuchen, PhD

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.

The Thomas Vierbuchen lab group

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Publications Highlights

Baako AK, Vijayakumar R, Medina-Cano D, Wang Z, Romero Pichardo J, Fadojutimi K, Do S.C, Lin Y, Islam MT, Dixit S, Trzeciak A, Perry JSA#, Vierbuchen T# (2025) Modelling tissue-resident macrophage development from mouse pluripotent stem cells. bioRxiv (doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.05.01.651743)

Ee LS*, Medina-Cano D*, Goetzler E, Uyehara CM, Schwarz C, Salataj E, Madhuranath S, Evans T, Hadjantonakis AK, Apostolou E, Polyzos A, Vierbuchen T#, Stadtfeld M# (2025). Enhancer remodeling by Otx2 directs specification and patterning of mammalian definitive endoderm (accepted in principle, Developmental Cell)

Medina-Cano D*, Islam MT*, Petrova V*, Dixit S, Balic Z, Yang MG, Stadtfeld M, Wong ES#, Vierbuchen T#. (2024) A mouse organoid platform for modeling cerebral cortex development and cis-regulatory evolution in vitro. bioRxiv (doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.09.30.615887) (accepted, Developmental Cell)

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

Parikh C.*, Glenn R.*, Shi Y.*, Chatterjee K., Swanzey E., Singer S., Do S.C., Zhan Y., Furuta Y., Tahiliani M., Apostolou E., Polyzos A., Koche R., Mezey J.#, Vierbuchen T.#, Stadtfeld M.# (2024) Genetic variation modulates susceptibility to aberrant DNA hypomethylation and imprint deregulation in naive pluripotent stem cells. Stem Cell Reports (20), Issue 4, 102450 doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stemcr.2025.102450

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People

Thomas Vierbuchen

Thomas S. Vierbuchen, PhD

  • 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
vierbuct@mskcc.org
Email Address

Members

Ann Kabuki Baako
Ann Kabuki Baako

Graduate Student, Weill Cornell Neuroscience program

Zerina Balic

Graduate Student, Weill Cornell BCMB program

Natalia Bonilla

Sr. Administrative Assistant

Yuan Lin
Yuan Lin

Senior Research Scientist

Daniel Medina-Cano
Daniel Medina-Cano

Research Associate

Rena Park
Rena Park

MSK Bridge Program Scholar

Laura Santini

Research Scholar

Ragavi Vijayakumar
Ragavi Vijayakumar

Graduate Student, Weill Cornell BCMB program

Lab Alumni
Emily Corrigan
Emily Corrigan

Current Position: Graduate Student, UCSF

Sanjana Dixit
Sanjana Dixit

Research Technician

Stephanie Do

Research Technician

Rachel Glenn
Rachel Glenn

Graduate Student, Weill Cornell BCMB program

Mohammed T. Islam
Mohammed T. Islam

Graduate Student, Gerstner Sloan Kettering Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences

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.

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Get in Touch

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 ecoi@mskcc.org.


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