Several years ago, the team of Professor Jürgen Knoblich from the IMBA Vienna successfully grew mini brains – so-called cerebral organoids – to imitate the development of a human brain. These organoids, however, were not suited for the targeted study of neurological diseases: While they contained the desired parts of the brain, their arrangement was completely random. This meant that it was possible to study only the individual parts but not their interaction.

Dr. Joshua Bagley from Professor Knoblich’s team has now succeeded in growing the brain parts separately and combining them in a next step, fusing dorsal and ventral forebrains. For the first time, it is therefore possible to observe the interactions of two brain regions live. This three-dimensional brain model facilitates a more targeted study of the causes of neurological diseases such as epilepsy, autism, or schizophrenia to a hitherto unprecedented degree.