But an organoid in a dish will only develop so far, so if you want to mature it further, you have to transplant it into the brain of another animal, like a rat. In their efforts to better understand these conditions, researchers like Sergiu have connected multiple brain organoids together into circuits called ‘assembloids’. So, models built from stem cells derived from patients are important to start tackling or start asking questions about the biology of these neuropsychiatric conditions. We need models to study these conditions that maintain some of the genetic or genomic context. But even so, since the 2000s, organoids have become a powerful tool for studying neural development and the evolution of the brain, as well as certain neuropsychiatric conditions. The human brain is immensely complex, made of billions of neurons that form countless connections. As Sergiu says, a neural organoid isn’t a tiny brain. This is Sergiu Pasca from Stanford University in the US. They are supposed to model aspects of the anatomy or function of the nervous system. They're not miniaturised versions of the entire brain. Neural organoids are clumps of cells that are derived in a laboratory dish. In 2008, a team of scientists showed that you could take some human skin cells, reprogram them into stem cells, and get them to develop into complex 3D brain tissue – a small mass of brain cells known as a neural organoid. This week in Nature, one of those groups has a new paper out, demonstrating that human neurons transplanted into rats can integrate into the brain and even influence behaviour. I’m Benjamin Thompson.Ī few weeks ago on the podcast feed, you might have heard one of our long read shows, where I read a feature article by Kendall Powell, which looked at efforts from labs around the world to transplant human cells into animal brains to understand more about things like brain development and disease progression. This week: integrating human brain organoids into the brains of rats, and the exoskeleton boots that learn as you walk. Head here for the Nature Podcast RSS feed. Never miss an episode: Subscribe to the Nature Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or your favourite podcast app. Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday. Nature Video: The robot boot that learns as you walk They hope that this approach could be used to develop personalised assistive devices in the future. Now, a team have created exoskeleton boots that can help people walk faster and more efficiently by learning and adapting to the wearer’s gait as they walk. Wearable robotic exoskeletons that aid or enhance movement are fast becoming a reality, but there are challenges to overcome - to work best these devices frequently require careful calibration for their user using specialist equipment and time in a lab. Research Highlight: Hydrogen could help China’s heavy industry to get greener 11:46 The exoskeleton boot that makes walking more efficient Research Highlight: What gives jazz its swing? A delay makes the difference The subtle timing shift that gives jazz music its ‘swing’, and why hydrogen power could be a cost-effective way to reduce heavy industry emissions in China. News and Views: Human brain organoids influence rat behaviour 09:20 Research Highlights To overcome this, a team has now transplanted human organoids into the brains of newborn rats, showing that these implanted organoids respond to stimuli and could influence the animals’ behaviour. However, these structures lack connections seen in real brains, limiting their usefulness. In this episode: 00:45 Implanted brain organoids could offer new insights into diseaseīrain organoids - lab-grown, self-organizing structures made of stem cells - are used in research to better understand brain development and disease progression.
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