A framework for neural organoids, assembloids and transplantation studies

Sergiu P Pașca; Paola Arlotta; Helen S Bateup; J Gray Camp; Silvia Cappello; Fred H Gage; Jürgen A Knoblich; Arnold R Kriegstein; Madeline A Lancaster; Guo-Li Ming; Gaia Novarino; Hideyuki Okano; Malin Parmar; In-Hyun Park; Orly Reiner; Hongjun Song; Lorenz Studer; Jun Takahashi; Sally Temple; Giuseppe Testa; Barbara Treutlein; Flora M Vaccarino; Pierre Vanderhaeghen; Tracy Young-Pearse

doi:10.1038/s41586-024-08487-6

A framework for neural organoids, assembloids and transplantation studies

Nature. 2024 Dec 9. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-08487-6. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Sergiu P Pașca^{1

2}, Paola Arlotta^{3

4}, Helen S Bateup^{5

6}, J Gray Camp^{7

8}, Silvia Cappello^{9

10}, Fred H Gage¹¹, Jürgen A Knoblich^{12

13}, Arnold R Kriegstein¹⁴, Madeline A Lancaster^{15

16}, Guo-Li Ming^{17

18

19

20}, Gaia Novarino²¹, Hideyuki Okano²², Malin Parmar²³, In-Hyun Park²⁴, Orly Reiner^{25

26}, Hongjun Song^{17

18

19

27}, Lorenz Studer²⁸, Jun Takahashi²⁹, Sally Temple³⁰, Giuseppe Testa^{31

32}, Barbara Treutlein³³, Flora M Vaccarino^{34

35

36}, Pierre Vanderhaeghen^{37

38}, Tracy Young-Pearse^{39

40}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA. [email protected].
² Stanford Brain Organogenesis, Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute and Bio-X, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA. [email protected].
³ Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
⁴ Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA.
⁵ Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
⁶ Department of Neuroscience, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
⁷ Institute of Human Biology (IHB), Roche Pharma Research and Early Development, Roche Innovation Center Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
⁸ Biozentrum, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
⁹ Department of Physiological Genomics, Biomedical Center (BMC), Faculty of Medicine, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany.
¹⁰ Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Munich, Germany.
¹¹ Laboratory of Genetics, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA, USA.
¹² Institute of Molecular Biotechnology, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna Biocenter, Vienna, Austria.
¹³ Department of Neurology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
¹⁴ Department of Neurology and Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
¹⁵ MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Francis Crick Avenue, Cambridge, UK.
¹⁶ Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
¹⁷ Department of Neuroscience and Mahoney Institute for Neurosciences, Perelman School for Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
¹⁸ Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Perelman School for Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
¹⁹ Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Perelman School for Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
²⁰ Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School for Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
²¹ Institute of Science and Technology of Austria, Klosterneuburg, Austria.
²² Keio University Regenerative Medicine Research Center, Kanagawa, Japan.
²³ Department of Experimental Medical Science, Lund Stem Cell Center, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.
²⁴ Department of Genetics, Yale Stem Cell Center, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
²⁵ Department of Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
²⁶ Department of Molecular Neuroscience, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
²⁷ The Epigenetics Institute, Perelman School for Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
²⁸ The Center for Stem Cell Biology, Developmental Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute for Cancer Research, New York, NY, USA.
²⁹ Department of Clinical Application, Center for iPS Cell Research and Application, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.
³⁰ Neural Stem Cell Institute, Rensselaer, NY, USA.
³¹ Department of Oncology and Hemato-Oncology, University of Milan, Milan, Italy.
³² Human Technopole, Viale Rita Levi Montalcini, Milan, Italy.
³³ Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering, ETH Zürich, Basel, Switzerland.
³⁴ Child Study Center, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
³⁵ Department of Neuroscience, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
³⁶ Yale Kavli Institute for Neuroscience, New Haven, CT, USA.
³⁷ VIB-KU Leuven Center for Brain & Disease Research, Leuven, Belgium.
³⁸ Department of Neurosciences, Leuven Brain Institute, Leuven, Belgium.
³⁹ Department of Neurology, Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
⁴⁰ Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.

PMID: 39653126
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08487-6

Abstract

As the field of neural organoids and assembloids rapidly expands, there is an emergent need for guidance and advice on designing, conducting and reporting experiments to increase the reproducibility and utility of these models. Here, our consortium- representing specialized laboratories from around the world- presents a framework for the experimental process that ranges from ensuring the quality and integrity of human pluripotent stem cells to characterizing and manipulating neural cells in vitro, and from transplantation techniques to considerations for modeling human development, evolution, and disease. As with all scientific endeavors, we advocate for rigorous experimental designs tailored to explicit scientific questions, and transparent methodologies and data sharing, to provide useful knowledge for both current research practices and for developing regulatory standards.

Publication types

Review