Seven-year lab-grown brain organoids reveal time-keeping in a dish
Harvard researchers grew brain organoids for up to seven years, using DNA methylation epigenetic clocks to show the artificial brains develop and effectively age like human brains; mixing older organoid tissue with younger tissue warped development, suggesting organoids can record developmental time, though most organoids die from oxygen limits and are destroyed after experiments. The work illuminates brain development and offers new angles for studying neurodegenerative diseases and other conditions.