Donna Werling

Assistant professor
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Donna Werling is assistant professor of genetics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her work focuses on the etiology of neurodevelopmental conditions such as autism, and investigates how sexually dimorphic biology contributes to sex-differential prevalence in autism.

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Neuronal genes SATB2 and MEF2C.

Nuclear location helps control gene activity during brain development

A study of developing human brain tissue suggests that genes switch on more strongly when they move from the nucleus’s edge toward structures that contain proteins involved in making and processing RNA.

By Giorgia Guglielmi
20 August 2026 | 4 min read
Cortical organoids.

Five-year-old human brain organoids aged on schedule

The cultured spheres typically mimic only prenatal development, but the five-year-old ones grown in Paola Arlotta’s lab acquired postnatal features.

By Claudia López Lloreda
19 August 2026 | 5 min read