Gene-Edited Brain Organoids Are Unlocking the Secrets of Autism
By Amit Katwala,
Wired
| 02. 21. 2022
Hundreds of genes have been linked to autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a complicated range of conditions affecting the behavior, social development, and communication of tens of millions people worldwide. But teasing out exactly what effect those genes have and how they relate to ASD has been devilishly difficult. “Nobody can study an actual human brain as it develops,” says Paola Arlotta, a professor of stem cell and regenerative biology at Harvard University. But a new approach based on growing clumps of brain cells in the lab is now yielding promising results.
Arlotta and her colleagues at Harvard and the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT have been working with organoids—three-dimensional clumps of brain tissue grown from stem cells—usually just a few millimeters across. When organoids are left to grow, they start to develop different types of brain cells, and begin to organize into primitive networks that mimic some, but not all, of the architecture of the human brain.
Organoids grown from stem cells donated by people with ASD have been used to study the condition in the past. But...
Related Articles
By Elizabeth Dwoskin and Zoeann Murphy, The Washington Post | 10.01.2025
MEXICO CITY — When she walked into an IVF clinic in June, Alin Quintana knew it would be the last time she would try to conceive a child. She had prepared herself spiritually and mentally for the visit: She had traveled to a nearby...
By Rob Stein, NPR | 09.30.2025
Scientists have created human eggs containing genes from adult skin cells, a step that someday could help women who are infertile or gay couples have babies with their own genes but would also raise difficult ethical, social and legal issues...
By Jessica Mouzo, El País | 10.03.2025
DNA is the molecule of life: this double-helix structure, present in every cell in the body and organized into fragments called genes, stores the instructions for making organisms function. It is a highly precise biological machine, but sometimes it breaks...
GeneWatch UK has prepared a briefing on the genetic modification of nature for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Congress in October 2025
The upcoming Congress claims to be “where the world comes together to set priorities and drive conservation and sustainable development action.” A major concern for those on the outside is that the Congress may advance plans to develop and encourage the use of synthetic biology in nature conservation. This could at first glance sound like...