Mini-brains in a dish kept alive for a year

摘要

MINIATURE human brain-like structures have been grown in a dish for more than a year, much longer than possible before. This was accomplished by growing brain cells into a ball, then slicing it up so that oxygen and nutrients can reach all the cells, while allowing the structure to retain its internal tissue architecture. The standard way to study tissues kept alive in the lab is to grow a single layer of cells in a dish. Then it was found that if the cells could be coaxed into a pea-sized ball known as an organoid, they mature into different cell types that interact with each other more naturally.