New Quality Control Framework for Cerebral Organoids Can Help Scale Their Application

Study in a Sentence: Researchers developed a new quality control framework to make cerebral organoids more reproducible—so that many different researchers can achieve consistent results—broadening their application and impact in medical research and toxicity testing. 

Healthy for Humans: Cerebral organoids are complex in vitro models that mimic the functions and development of the human brain. They have already been used to investigate neurodevelopmental processes, and when derived from patient-specific cells, they can be valuable animal-free tools for understanding neurological diseases and testing neurotoxicity. 

Redefining Research: While cerebral organoids hold significant potential for neuroscience research, experimental standardization is needed to maximize their applicability and reproducibility. In this study, researchers developed a quality control method to consistently identify high-quality organoids in a standardized manner across multiple experiments, researchers, and labs. The method can be scaled up to enable the broader implementation of organoids in neuroscience research and pharmaceutical testing—without the use of animals.