Dr. Anca Hratinski is a physician-scientist, neonatologist, and stem cell biologist whose research focuses on understanding mechanisms of human brain development, neuroinflammation, and neurological injury using patient-derived stem cell models. 

She was among the early pioneers of three-dimensional human cortical organoid technologies and contributed to development of foundational protocols for generating region-specific human brain organoids from pluripotent stem cells. Her work helped establish the feasibility of modeling human brain development and disease using stem cell-derived tissues and has contributed to the widespread adoption of organoid technologies across neuroscience, regenerative medicine, and translational research.

A major focus of Dr. Hratinski's laboratory is the development of increasingly sophisticated multicellular organoid and assembloid systems that incorporate diverse neuronal and glial populations to model complex human brain circuitry and disease processes. The lab integrates stem cell biology, organoid engineering, CRISPR-based genome editing, single-cell transcriptomics, epigenomics, high-content imaging, and computational approaches to identify disease mechanisms and therapeutic targets. These technologies have been applied to studies of hypoxic brain injury, 22q11.2 deletion syndrome, Trisomy 21 (Down Syndrome), Trisomy 18, narcolepsy, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Disease.