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A screen of brain organoids to study neurodevelopmental disease

A high-throughput technique has been developed to screen genes implicated in neurodevelopmental diseases in 3D cell cultures. It reveals a mechanism that might be involved in a rare disorder called microcephaly.
  1. Adriana Cherskov

    1. Adriana Cherskov is in the Department of Neuroscience, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06510, USA.

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  2. Nenad Sestan

    1. Nenad Sestan is in the Department of Neuroscience, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06510, USA.

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Thousands of genetic variants increase the risk that a person will be affected by a major disorder of the nervous system, such as improper brain growth1–3. Understanding the effects of these variants could reveal disease mechanisms and point to possible drug targets. But studying each variant individually is a slow and arduous process. Moreover, the complexity of the human brain makes such studies difficult. Writing in Science, Esk et al.4 outline a high-throughput in vitro screening approach that can overcome these obstacles. The authors then use their screen to analyse genes associated with a rare developmental condition called microcephaly.

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Nature 589, 24-25 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-03636-z

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