Shiva Nischal

My area of study is developmental neuroscience, with a specific focus on thalamocortical interactions with neuronal stem cell precursors and germinal compartments of the human cerebral cortex (namely subplate and outer sub-ventricular zone) during embryological and early postnatal development. A large body of evidence exists supporting the role of intrinsic neocortical factors in early control of cerebral cortical patterning, but a major additional input from early thalamocortical axons (TCAs) provide significant extrinsic control for the topographic arealisation of cerebral cortex and refinement of environmental sensory perception in the developing human brain. These projections reach the developing cortex at very early stages of human development, prior to the peak of neurogenesis and neuronal migration, and are critically relevant in elucidating the pathogenesis of various neurodevelopmental disorders associated with impaired cortical neurogenesis, migration, and organisation, such as epilepsy, autism, and lissencephaly.

I graduated from the University of Cambridge with a degree in Medicine (MB BChir 2024) and Medical Sciences (BA 2021), as well as a First-Class degree in Biomedical Science (BSc (Hons) 2019) from the University of Buckingham. I have aspirations to pursue a career as a clinician-scientist, combining my academic interests in developmental neuroscience with clinical work in paediatric neurosurgery.

My introduction to developmental neuroscience came during a summer research placement (2020) at Great Ormond Street Institute for Child Health (UCL) where I investigated the cellular biomechanics of neural tube closure in chicken and mouse embryos under the supervision of Dr Gabriel Galea. During this time, I gained exposure to stem cell-based models of early CNS development and became fascinated with organoid-based technology. I was later selected for an MRC Summer Studentship at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology (Cambridge) (2021) and investigated extrinsic regulators of human cortical development using cerebral and choroid plexus organoids under the supervision of Professor Madeline Lancaster and Dr Laura Pellegrini (now Group Leader at the Centre for Developmental Neurobiology, King’s College London). As part of my medical school summer elective (2023), I joined the laboratory of Professor Zoltán Molnár (Department of Physiology, Anatomy, and Genetics, University of Oxford) and investigated abnormalities in brain development following fetal growth restriction using a mild intrauterine hypoperfusion rodent model under the co-supervision of Professor Masahiro Tsuji (Kyoto Women’s University, Japan). I won an award from the University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine for this project and have now returned to pursue doctoral studies in the Molnár laboratory.

My clinical interests lie in neurosurgery and I have been fortunate to work on a variety of projects ranging from vascular and paediatric neurosurgery to neurological trauma, epilepsy, global health, and machine learning. This diversity and breadth of research opportunities has enabled me to gain mentorship from a variety of successful neurosurgeon-scientists and better understand what a career in this field entails.