Tag

Organoids

All articles tagged with #organoids

science19 days ago•3 min saved

Mice With Human Cortical Neurons: A New Frontier in Brain Research

Stanford researchers engineered mice missing a cortical region and implanted human cortical neurons, which proliferated to millions and connected with the mouse brain, creating a partly human brain in the mice. The model could help study human brain development and neurocognitive diseases, including frontotemporal dementia linked to von Economo neurons, but it raises ethical questions about consciousness and animal rights. The human neurons remained immature, the study was halted at six months to avoid potential consciousness markers, and oxygen deprivation at birth produced brain damage in the human-neuron mice, unlike typical mice.

via Futurism|

#brain #ethics #neuroscience

science19 days ago•6 min saved

Venus’s Lost Moon, Gondwana’s Hidden Peaks, and Humans in Mice: A Wide-Ranging Science Digest

A digest of several studies: Venus may have swallowed a primordial moon due to tidal evolution, potentially shaping its harsh climate; evidence suggests Antarctica hides remnants of the Gondwana Supermountains and submarine fan systems linked to the Cambrian explosion; researchers demonstrate xenocortication by transplanting human brain organoids into mice, where the tissues develop similarly to human brain cells; and a six-page fragment of Nicholas Love’s Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ was found tucked in John Gage’s belongings from the Dissolution period.

via 404 Media|

#antarctica #gondwana #moon

science21 days ago•5 min saved

Mice engineered with human brain cells spark breakthrough in brain disease research

Stanford researchers transplanted human brain organoids into mice with greatly reduced cortex, enabling human cells to integrate with the mouse brain and circuits. The animals showed largely normal behavior, offering a potential new model for studying human brain disorders and testing treatments, but the work does not make mice think like humans and raises significant ethical questions about animal cognition and welfare.

via BBC|

#brain-research #ethics #mouse-model

science23 days ago•8 min saved

Human cortex organoids partially take over a mouse brain, with mixed results

Stanford scientists replaced much of a mouse cortex with human brain organoid cells; grafts integrated in most animals and produced human cortical neurons with long-range connections, but lacked proper layering, yielding only intermediate behavioral and memory improvements—not yet a reliable human brain model; more work is needed to understand the cells’ roles.

via Ars Technica|

#brain #cortex #neuroscience

science23 days ago•6 min saved

Human brain tissue fully integrates into mouse brains, opening new disease research avenues

Researchers transplanted human brain tissue into newborn mice engineered to lack a cortical region. Within 2–3 months the graft expanded to fill more than 90% of the empty brain space and formed extensive neural connections, including von Economo-like neurons, wiring into the animals’ nervous systems. Described as the most extensive human-brain-cell integration in an animal to date, the work provides a powerful platform to study human neurodevelopment and test therapies for developmental brain disorders, while undergoing ethical oversight and without increasing the rodents’ intelligence.

via Nature|

#bioethics #brain-development #neuroscience

neuroscience23 days ago•147 min saved

Human cortical organoids form integrated xenocortex in mice

Researchers depleted the mouse dorsal pallium and neonataly engrafted human stem-cell–derived cortical organoids (hCOs) to create xenocortical (XCX) mice, in which hCOs expand to occupy most of the cortex, differentiate into diverse human cortical cell types (including layer 5 ET neurons), and integrate with host circuits as shown by in vivo calcium imaging and electrophysiology. Behavioral analyses reveal largely preserved locomotion with selective deficits in tasks needing neocortex/hippocampus, while unsupervised MoSeq analysis indicates grafts yield distinct but intermediate behavioral repertoires. The platform also enables modeling of hypoxic injury to developing human cortical tissue and could facilitate disease modeling and therapeutic discovery using large human-derived cortical grafts and behavioral readouts.

via Nature|

#in-vivo #neural-circuits #neuroscience

science27 days ago•28 min saved

ProteinTalks: AI-powered virtual cell model predicts drug responses from perturbation proteomics

Researchers generated over 38 million time-resolved proteomic measurements from systematically perturbed breast cancer cell lines and built ProteinTalks, a scalable virtual cell model that learns transferable dynamic representations from proteome trajectories to predict drug efficacy and synergy, discover new drug combinations, probe proteins linked to drug resistance, and stratify patient responses. The model shows robust transferability to patient-derived organoids and clinical biopsies, generally outperforming benchmark methods, and data/code are publicly available to enable in silico drug discovery.

via Nature|

#drug-discovery #organoids #perturbation-proteomics

science1 month ago•7 min saved

Molecular atlas of autism points toward targeted therapies

Scientists published the largest map to date of how autism-linked genetic mutations rewire brain protein networks, using AI and lab-grown brain organoids to identify over 1,800 protein–protein interactions (87% new) and prioritize mutations with AlphaFold. The resulting molecular wiring diagram could shift drug development from targeting individual genes to stabilizing disrupted protein complexes, with three therapeutic programs already underway, though translating findings into treatments will take time and may not apply to all autism forms.

via CNN|

#alphafold #autism #drug-discovery

science1 month ago•7 min saved

Autism Wiring Map Reveals Drug Targets

Scientists have produced the largest map of autism-related protein interactions by using AI and lab-grown brain organoids to show how genetic mutations rewire brain networks, creating a blueprint of protein wiring rather than a gene-by-gene target; the findings point toward therapies that stabilize disrupted protein complexes, with three drug-development programs already underway, though translating these insights into treatments will take time and may not cover all autism forms.

via CNN|

#artificial-intelligence #autism #drug-discovery

science1 month ago•53 min saved

Lab-Grown Brain Organoids Track Time and Retain Developmental Memory

Scientists have created long-lived brain-like organoids that can sense the passage of time and preserve a cellular memory of their developmental age. These organoids remain alive for nearly six years—the longest observed—showing ongoing maturation across cell types and even retaining developmental history when older and younger cells are reassembled into chimeroids. Using epigenetic clocks, researchers demonstrated aging patterns similar to real brains, suggesting a cell-intrinsic clock. The work, published in Nature by Faravelli and Bolaños, offers a new platform to study human brain maturation and neoteny in vitro.

via Yahoo|

#brain #chimeroids #maturation

science1 month ago•168 min saved

Organoid timing gap challenges lab-grown minibrains as brain models

New research shows lab-grown brain organoids don’t mirror real brain development timing. In mouse-derived organoids, radial glial progenitors sometimes produce neurons too early, while later-stage progenitors overproduce, and about a third become fate-restricted to a single neuron type. The organoids also lack in vivo signals like blood vessels and extracellular cues that may synchronize development. This timing mismatch could limit organoids’ usefulness for modeling brain development and disease, prompting researchers to identify missing signals and test human-cell organoids to better mimic real brains.

via Live Science|

#brain-development #minibrains #neurodevelopment

technology1 month ago•25 min saved

Living Brains, New Computers: The Organoid AI Frontier

A longform feature explores how lab-grown human brain organoids are advancing from disease models to prototypes of computing, with organoids that can connect, learn, and even power bio-computers by interfacing with hardware. While researchers debate ethics and whether such tissue could be conscious, the practical promise is clear: better drug testing models and energy‑efficient, biology‑based computing that could complement or rival traditional AI.

via WIRED|

#brain-organoids #cortical-labs #neural-computing

science2 months ago•80 min saved

Organoid biobank maps cancer dependencies across five tumor types

A large, open organoid biobank derived from colorectal, oesophageal, ovarian, pancreatic and gastric cancers (256 organoids from 878 donors) was established with linked clinical data and extensive genomic profiling (WGS and RNA-seq). CRISPR–Cas9 screens on 162 organoids mapped gene dependencies, revealing organoids faithfully recapitulate tumor genomics and heterogeneity, identifying organoid-specific essential genes and context-driven vulnerabilities (notably along the EGFR–RAS–MAPK axis) and observing treatment-driven evolutionary changes in paired pre/post samples. The resource, with data publicly accessible via Cell Model Passports and DepMap, advances precision oncology by enabling systematic, functionally informed cancer maps.

via Nature|

#biobank #cancer-genomics #crispr

science4 months ago•5 min saved

Lab-grown brain–spinal cord model reveals reversible nerve regrowth brake

Cambridge researchers built mini brain–spinal cord organoids that form functional circuits capable of triggering muscle contractions. They found human neurons can regrow axons before about day 150 of development but lose this ability as they mature; by blocking a growth-suppressing gene network and applying lynestrenol, damaged axons regrew in the model. This human-relevant organoid system helps study nerve repair and suggests strategies for spinal injuries and related disorders, though further work is needed to ensure proper brain–spinal connections.

via SciTechDaily|

#axon-regrowth #lab-grown-brain-spinal-cord #lynestrenol

science5 months ago•6 min saved

Endometrium organoids shed and regenerate, revealing how tissue heals without scarring

Researchers created endometrium organoids that cycle with hormones, shed tissue during progesterone withdrawal, and then regenerate, showing luminal epithelial cells drive repair and providing a simple lab model to study uterine regeneration and related diseases.

via Nature|

#endometrium #menstruation #organoids