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How collaboration between bioethicists and neuroscientists can advance research

Nature Neuroscience volume 25, pages 1399–1401 (2022)Cite this article

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By integrating ongoing bioethical collaboration, neuroscientists can create a positive effect on their research and the knowledge it produces. To this end, we offer our experiences with an interdisciplinary model for the ethical advancement of a promising area of neuroscience — human neural organoid research.

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Acknowledgements

This project was funded by the NIH BRAIN Initiative Grant no. RF1 MH117803. I.H and J.E.L. received additional funding from the Greenwall Foundation’s ‘Making a Difference’ Grant.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Bioethics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Insoo Hyun, Robert D. Truog & Jeantine E. Lunshof

  2. Center for Life Sciences and Public Learning, Museum of Science, Boston, MA, USA

    Insoo Hyun

  3. Department of Bioethics, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH, USA

    J. C. Scharf-Deering & Aaron Goldenberg

  4. Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA

    Sarah Sullivan, Richie E. Kohman, Aric Lu & Jeantine E. Lunshof

  5. Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    John Dennis Aach, George M. Church, Richie E. Kohman & Jeantine E. Lunshof

  6. Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Paola Arlotta, Bruna Paulsen & Martina Pigoni

  7. Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, Boston, MA, USA

    Matthew L. Baum

  8. Harvard Medical School, Department of Psychiatry, Boston, MA, USA

    Matthew L. Baum

  9. Stanford Law School, Stanford, CA, USA

    Henry T. Greely

  10. GC Therapeutics Inc., Cambridge, MA, USA

    Parastoo Khoshakhlagh & Alex H. M. Ng

  11. Wyss Center for Bio- and Neuroengineering, Geneva, Switzerland

    Richie E. Kohman

  12. Office of the Vice Provost of Research, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Melissa Lopes

  13. Department of Biological Engineering, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Caroline Lowenthal

  14. Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA

    Aric Lu

  15. Biological Engineering Division, Draper Laboratory, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Aric Lu

  16. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, , Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Sergiu P. Pasca

  17. Stanford Brain Organogenesis, Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Sergiu P. Pasca

  18. Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA

    Christopher T. Scott

  19. Department of Psychiatry and Institute for the Neurosciences, Brigham and Women’s/Faulkner Hospitals, Boston, MA, USA

    David A. Silbersweig

  20. Department of Bioengineering, Betty Irene Moore Children’s Heart Center, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Mark A. Skylar-Scott

  21. Basic Science and Engineering Initiative, Children’s Heart Center, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Mark A. Skylar-Scott

  22. Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Mark A. Skylar-Scott

  23. Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Jeantine E. Lunshof

Authors
  1. Insoo Hyun
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  2. J. C. Scharf-Deering
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  3. Sarah Sullivan
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  4. John Dennis Aach
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  5. Paola Arlotta
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  6. Matthew L. Baum
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  7. George M. Church
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  8. Aaron Goldenberg
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  9. Henry T. Greely
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  10. Parastoo Khoshakhlagh
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  11. Richie E. Kohman
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  12. Melissa Lopes
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  13. Caroline Lowenthal
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  14. Aric Lu
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  15. Alex H. M. Ng
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  16. Sergiu P. Pasca
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  17. Bruna Paulsen
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  18. Martina Pigoni
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  19. Christopher T. Scott
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  20. David A. Silbersweig
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  21. Mark A. Skylar-Scott
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  22. Robert D. Truog
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  23. Jeantine E. Lunshof
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Insoo Hyun or Jeantine E. Lunshof.

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Competing interests

A.H.M.N. and P.K. are inventors on patents filed by the Presidents and Fellows of Harvard College and GC Therapeutics, Inc., and are co-founders of and have equity in GC Therapeutics, Inc. I.H. is a bioethics advisor for Bayer, the Novo Nordisk Foundation, and Rumi Therapeutics. P.A. is a member of the scientific advisory board at Herophilus, Rumi Therapeutics, and Foresite Labs, and is a co-founder of Vesalius. M.A.S.-S. and A.L. have submitted a patent application associated with engineered brain organoids (US Provisional Application Serial No. 63/048,502, filed July 6, 2020). Stanford University holds patents for the generation of cortical organoids/spheroids and assembloids (listing S.P.P. as an inventor). From September 1, 2021, M.P. has been an employee of Roche. G.M.C.’s competing interests are listed at https://arep.med.harvard.edu/gmc/tech.html. The remaining authors declare no competing interests.

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Hyun, I., Scharf-Deering, J.C., Sullivan, S. et al. How collaboration between bioethicists and neuroscientists can advance research. Nat Neurosci 25, 1399–1401 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-022-01187-2

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