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By transplanting human brain organoids into mice, researchers created a new in vivo platform that could advance the study of human neural functions and drug testing.    Originally written by Mariella Bodemeier Loayza Careaga, PhD, on Sep 16, 2026   Researchers created a new transplantation mouse model that shows extensive connectivity between human-derived brain organoid cells (green and red) and the mouse host brain (blue). Image credit: Pasca lab, Stanford University. (CC BY 4.0) F or over a decade, Stanford University neuroscientist Sergiu Pasca has looked for strategies to study human brain functions and its disorders. In Pasca’s eyes, using human induced pluripotent stem cells to create human-derived brain organoids—three-dimensional, self-organized tissues grown in a dish—and transplanting them into rodent hosts is an opportunity to achieve this goal. In a study published in Nature , his team described a new mouse model into which they transplanted human-derived ne...

Organoids developed from human stem cells modeled spinal cord injuries, providing a powerful in vitro tool to evaluate regenerative therapies for CNS injuries. Original written by Sneha Khedkar and published on The Nutshell section of The Scientist on Feb 13, 2026 Despite being the most common cause of permanent disability, there are few effective treatments for spinal cord injuries. A new organoid model now offers a platform to test regenerative therapies, potentially accelerating the development of new therapies.  Image credit:© iStock.com, Charday Penn Injuries in the central nervous system (CNS) —such as those in the spinal cord—trigger glial scar formation, which inhibits nerve regeneration from healthy neurons surrounding the damage. This results in impaired motor, sensory, or autonomic functions . Despite such spinal cord injuries being the l eading cause of death and permanent disability and affecting up to 500,000 people globally each year , effective therapies ...