STAT+: Brain organoids, kept alive more than five years, matured like human brains — SkimNews
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- Paola Arlotta, a developmental neurobiologist at Harvard, reported that brain organoids in her lab kept alive more than five years matured like human brains
- Irene Faravelli, a junior scientist in Arlotta's group, was the one who analyzed the long-lived organoids and brought the images to Arlotta's office roughly two years ago
- Arlotta told STAT she was 'actually pleased that somebody had the courage to do this,' framing the long-term analysis as an unconventional move within her group
- Faravelli initially feared her analysis of the old organoids had been 'a grave mistake,' a concern Arlotta moved to dispel when she saw the results
Why it matters: Brain organoids surviving and maturing over five years give researchers a far longer-than-usual window into human brain development and disease modeling — and the fact that a junior scientist felt she needed courage to analyze them suggests the protocol of keeping these models alive that long remains uncommon in the field.
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