Lab-grown human brain cells ‘recorded passage of time’
Researchers have successfully grown human brain organoids for seven years, allowing them to observe brain development beyond the initial fetal stages. The study shows these biological models mature over time, providing a new way to study long-term brain development and disorders.
Why it matters
This breakthrough allows scientists to study the progression of complex neurological conditions like schizophrenia and autism in a controlled environment without using animal models.
These tiny clumps called organoids are grown from stem cells by scientists around the world in the hopes of uncovering the mysteries of our brain - and to test new medicine without having to use animals such as mice.Normally these organoids live for a few months, meaning they can only offer a window into the earliest stages of human brains, which take nearly 20 years to fully develop.So a US-led team of researchers grew some for around seven years, making them the "oldest ever", Paola Arlotta, the senior author of a new study describing the experiment, told AFP.They discovered that the brain organoids continued to change and mature over the years, despite never having been inside an embryo, let alone a body."The brain can continue to develop outside the context of a person for this unprecedented amount of time," explained Arlotta, a Harvard University professor.The scientists hope this will help…
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