Scientists at Bristol University tested lab-grown brain organoids by feeding them tactile signals from Braille letters via a connected sensor, then decoding the organoids' output. Single organoids produced accurately decodable signals 61% of the time, but groups of three organoids achieved 83% accuracy and were better than the raw sensor signal at filtering out noise. The study, led by PhD candidate Tianyi Liu, was published in Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence.
frontiersin.org
· 2026-10-22
Intero Biosystems, a Denver-based startup spun out of the University of Michigan, won the Startup Battlefield Cup and $100,000 at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026. The company, founded by Charlie Childs and Madeline Eiken, makes lab-grown human intestinal 'organoids' sold under the product name GastroScreen to test how drugs and other compounds affect the body. Apate, an Australian startup using AI agents to combat scammers, took runner-up honors among five finalists selected from 20 competitors.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-10-15
Denver startup Intero Biosystems, spun out of the University of Michigan, has launched GastroScreen, a human intestinal organoid model made of multiple cell and tissue types found in the gut. The company ships roughly 100 of the millimeter-sized organoids at a time to pharmaceutical, biotech, food, and chemical companies, which use them to test drugs and compounds in either healthy or disease-induced states. Intero also sells supporting supplies like nutrient mixes and reagents, and runs custom experiments and lab studies for clients.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-10-14
A research paper describes a human lung organoid system developed to study tissue-resident memory T cells (TRM) and their antiviral responses in the respiratory tract. The work draws on prior findings about TRM cells' role in protecting against influenza, SARS-CoV-2, and other pulmonary infections, aiming to recreate these dynamics outside the human body for closer study.
nature.com
· 2026-10-07
Researchers have successfully grafted human-derived brain organoids into the brains of mice lacking a cortex, aiming to overcome limitations of traditional organoid models. This approach could enable more advanced studies of human brain development and disease within a living organism. The study was published in Nature by Kaganovsky et al. in 2026.
nature.com
· 2026-10-06
Stanford University researchers led by Sergiu Pașca transplanted lab-grown human brain organoids into mice bred to lack most of their cerebral cortex. The transplanted tissue survived and formed functional connections to the animals' brains and spinal cords, according to a study published in Nature. The team describes it as the most extensive integration of human brain cells into an animal achieved to date.
nature.com
· 2026-09-29
Stanford researchers who previously showed human brain organoids could survive and function inside baby mice have now genetically engineered mice so their own brains don't fully develop, allowing human tissue to fill the gap more extensively. The approach aims to create better models for studying brain injury and development, while forcing the team to set explicit ethical limits on how far the chimeric brain research should go.
technologyreview.com
· 2026-09-17
A Stanford research team removed a large section of a mouse's brain and replaced it with tissue grown from human stem cells known as brain organoids. The goal was to give these lab-grown clusters of neurons a living, connected environment closer to an actual brain than a petri dish can offer.
arstechnica.com
· 2026-09-16
A Stanford team led by Sergiu Pașca genetically engineered mice to lack most of their cortex and hippocampus, then implanted human brain organoid cells into the resulting gap. The human cells expanded to fill much of that space within weeks to months, and mice with the human tissue performed better on memory maze tests than mice without it.
technologyreview.com
· 2026-09-16
Researchers engineered mice with genetically depleted cortical tissue using Emx1-cre and Esco2 conditional knockout lines, then implanted human-derived brain organoids grown from induced pluripotent stem cells into the resulting cavity. The organoids were produced by aggregating dissociated hiPS cells in microwell plates and guiding them through early neural differentiation with dorsomorphin and SB-431542 before transplantation.
nature.com
· 2026-09-16
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