Author

Massimo M. Onesto

Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA, Stanford Brain Organogenesis, Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute and Bio-X, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA;ORCID 0000-0001-9117-5145Unclaimed ORCID profile · follow to get notified of new preprints

Biology Disciplines

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Neuroscience· 3 Systems Biology· 1

Signature Assays, Organisms & Methods

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Organism:human· 4 Research Focus:cell type annotation· 3 Research Focus:differential expression· 2 Approach:experimental assay· 2 Assay:scRNA-seq· 2 Assay:bulk RNA-seq· 1 Approach:deep learning· 1 Approach:diffusion model· 1

Frequent Co-Authors

Sergiu P. PașcaiD· 3 shared James P. McQueeniD· 2 shared Neal D. AminiD· 2 shared Noah ReisiD· 2 shared Abel BermudeziD· 1 shared Adam Barner· 1 shared Adam J. LittermaniD· 1 shared Alfredo M. ValenciaiD· 1 shared

Activity by Year

2024-2026 · peak 2/yr

Co-Author Collaboration Network

10 top collaborators · 16 mutual co-author links

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3 shared papersNeuroscience

Sergiu P. PașcaORCID

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Author profile →

4 papers

Recent·Most cited

Human organoid screen links transient translational modulation to progenitor progression in corticogenesis

Merve Avar, Travis C Lantz, Daniel Heinzer, Massimo M Onesto, Kent Imaizumi, Vrishika Kulur, Marcos AS Fonseca, Sejin Yoon, Chunyang Dong, Becky J Levy, Min-Yin Li, Enrique Sosa, Abel Bermudez, Delaney Wood, Isabelle Liu, , Sergiu P Pasca

The paper screens human cortical organoids with small molecules to identify translational modulators affecting progenitor progression in corticogenesis, finding Emetine promotes neuronal differentiation.

bioRxiv · Nov 6, 2026 · PreprintNeuroscience

X-Cell: Scaling Causal Perturbation Prediction Across Diverse Cellular Contexts via Diffusion Language Models

Chloe Wang, Mehran Karimzadeh, Neal G. Ravindra, Lexi R. Bounds, Nader Alerasool, Ann Huang, Shihao Ma, Daniel R. Gulbranson, Haotian Cui, Yongju Lee, Anusuya Arjavalingam, Elliot J. MacKrell, Matthew S. Wilken, Jieming Chen, Benjamin W. Herken, , Bo Wang

X-Cell predicts causal perturbation responses across diverse cellular contexts using a diffusion language model trained on a large CRISPRi Perturb-seq dataset.

bioRxiv · Mar 20, 2026 · PreprintSystems Biology

Midline Assembloids Reveal Regulators of Human Axon Guidance

Massimo M. Onesto, Neal D. Amin, Chenjie Pan, Xiaoyu Chen, Ji‐il Kim, Noah Reis, Sabina Kanton, Alfredo M. Valencia, Zuzana Hudáčová, James P. McQueen, Marc Tessier‐Lavigne, Sergiu P. Pașca

The paper develops a human midline assembloid model to study axon guidance and identifies GALNT2 as a human-specific regulator of commissural axon guidance.

Science · Jul 17, 2025Peer-reviewedNeuroscience

Generating human neural diversity with a multiplexed morphogen screen in organoids

Neal D. Amin, Kevin W. Kelley, Konstantin Kaganovsky, Massimo M. Onesto, Jin Hao, Yuki Miura, James P. McQueen, Noah Reis, Genta Narazaki, Tommy Li, Shravanti Kulkarni, Sergey D. Pavlov, Sergiu P. Pașca

This study uses a morphogen screen in human neural organoids to generate diverse neural cell types and uncover design principles of brain region specification.

Cell stem cell · Dec 1, 2024Peer-reviewedNeuroscience