EMBO – The Company of Biologists Workshop – Neurodevelopmental disorders: genes to circuits and behavior

Brain development is a tremendously complex process involving the precise generation and integration of diverse neuronal and non-neuronal cell types into functional circuits. Disruptions to these tightly regulated neurodevelopmental events – driven by complex interactions between genetic and environmental factors – underlie many psychiatric and neurological disorders. However, it remains difficult to untangle the pathogenic mechanisms in such neurodevelopmental disorders due to their multigenic origins, temporal variability, and the often-delayed onset of clinical symptoms. Vulnerability periods differ across neurodevelopmental disorders, further complicating diagnosis and intervention. Recent advances have begun to map a multilayered cascade of disease mechanisms, from mutations affecting transcriptional control, epigenetic regulation, and synaptic protein networks to disrupted neuronal migration, circuit formation, and network dynamics. These impairments manifest in dysfunctional neural network activity and ultimately behavior. Emerging technologies such as single-cell RNA sequencing, CRISPR-based models, and brain organoids now offer unprecedented resolution for dissecting these mechanisms across molecular, cellular, and systems levels. This EMBO | Company of Biologists Workshop brings together researchers with complementary expertise to chart disease trajectories in neurodevelopmental disorders – from genes and molecules to circuits and behavior – and to explore how basic science, model systems, and epidemiological data can be integrated to uncover novel therapeutic and diagnostic targets.