Manufacturing Uniform Cerebral Organoids for Neurological Disease Modeling and Drug Evaluation

Abstract

Human cerebral organoids are promising tools for investigating brain development and the pathogenesis underlying neurological disorders. To use organoids for drug effectiveness and safety screening, the organoids dispensed into each well must be prepared under precisely the same conditions as the cells. Despite decades of extensive research on approaches to improve organoid generation, various challenges remain, such as low yields and heterogeneity in size and differentiation both within and between batches. Here, we newly established uniform cerebral organoids (UCOs) derived from induced pluripotent stem cells by optimizing organoid size and performing real-time monitoring of telencephalic differentiation marker expression. These organoids exhibited morphological uniformity and consistent expression of FOXG1 during telencephalic differentiation, with high productivity. Moreover, UCOs faithfully recapitulated early corticogenesis, concomitant with the establishment of neuroepithelial populations, cortical plate neurons, and glial cells. Furthermore, UCOs systematically developed neural networks and exhibited both excitatory and inhibitory electrophysiological signals when exposed to neurotransmission blockers. Neurodevelopmental disease models derived from UCOs manifested neurite outgrowth defects, which could be ameliorated with targeted drug treatment. We propose UCOs as an advanced platform with low organoid variations and high reproducibility for modeling both brain development and neurological diseases.