Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
Cover Legend: Schizophrenia is currently conceptualized as a neurodevelopmental disorder. Reprogrammed hair follicle cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) were used to study dopaminergic and glutamatergic neurodevelopmental abnormalities as well as mitochondrial dysfunction in schizophrenia patients. Dopaminergic cells derived from schizophrenia patients showed severely impaired ability to differentiate into neurons (Figure), whereas the glutamatergic neurons were unable to maturate. This was associated with reduced dopamine turnover rate and disrupted glutamate/glutamine metabolism, respectively. Moreover, dissipation of mitochondrial membrane potential (δψm) and perturbations in mitochondrial network structure and connectivity were observed in dopaminergic (Figure insert) and glutamatergic cells. The perturbations in neural differentiation and in mitochondrial function may be interconnected and of relevance to dysfunctional neurodevelopmental processes in schizophrenia. For more info on this topic, please refer to the article by Robicsek et al. on pages 1067–1076.