The research, led by Dr. David Picketts and published in the prestigious journal Developmental Cell, could lead to new approaches to stimulate brain regeneration and may provide important insight into developmental disorders such as autism and Rett syndrome.

Dr. Picketts and his team created the mice to learn more about Snf2l, which is known to play a role in packaging DNA and determining which genes are active versus inactive. They found that the mutant mice were completely normal, except that they had larger brains, more cells in all areas of the brain, and more actively dividing brain stem cells.

"This research represents a fundamental advance in our understanding of how the brain develops, and it also has important practical implications," said Dr. Picketts, Senior Scientist at OHRI and Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at uOttawa. "If we could identify drugs that regulate Snfl2 activity, these could potentially be used to stimulate neural stem cells to help regenerate and repair damage in people who have suffered brain injuries or strokes. We're still at the early stages of this research, but the possibilities are very exciting."