Neal Amin

Dr. Amin is a physician-scientist researcher in the Department of Psychiatry at Stanford University. Dr. Amin received a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia College, Columbia University, and earned MD and PhD degrees in the MSTP at the University of California, San Diego. With his graduate mentor Samuel L. Pfaff, PhD, at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, CA, he uncovered post-transcriptional, RNA regulatory pathways that are remarkably cell type-specific in motor neurons and are essential for mammalian life (Amin et al, Science 2015; Amin et al, Neuron 2021). He completed psychiatry residency training in the Research Track at Stanford University and postdoctoral studies with Sergiu P. Pasca at Stanford University where he developed human stem cell-derived brain organoid technology, enabling the ability to model the immense neurocellular diversity of the human brain and factors affecting stem cell-derived neuronal maturation (Amin and Pasca, Neuron, 2018; Amin*, Kelley* et al, bioRxiv, 2024; Onesto*, Amin* et al, bioRxiv, 2024). The Amin Lab at Stanford University investigates RNA regulatory mechanisms affecting human brain development and the emergence of neuropathology towards the development of novel therapeutics. His work is funded by the NINDS/NIH, Deeda Blair Research Initiative, and the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation. Dr. Amin's research leverages his unique background as a board-certified, practicing Stanford physician and researcher with 20 years of bench research experience spanning mouse genetics, human neuropathology, advanced stem cell models of the brain, and cell type-specific RNA processing pathways.