Since cerebral organoids can survive in a controlled environment for months, nervous system diseases like CJD can be studied over time.

The mini-brains continue to grow for about six months. So far, the longest the organoids at RML have lived is about a year. Other labs have reported keeping them alive for as long as 18 months.

“Like the human brain, as they get old, they start to decline,” Haigh said. “As they decline, they lose function and begin to die.”

While the organoids serve as excellent models for research, they don’t learn.

“Humans are defined by learning and memories,” she said. “These things have no learning or memories. It’s as if they are in a coma. They are brain cells. … Their neurons still fire back and forth to each other as if they were talking.

“But it’s not like they are human,” Haigh said. “They have no sensory organs and can’t interact with their world. We want to stay clear or giving any kind of sensory organs. The idea is to model a human brain, not create a human.”

Prion diseases often take years to manifest in a human. In most cases, the disease inflicts people in their 60s or older. Its symptoms include dementia, psychiatric inflictions and personality changes.

“Patients may only have months before they die,” she said. “In some patients, the disease is so aggressive, they are not diagnosed before they did. We want to know what causes the neurons to stop function and to die. If we can identify what causes that, then we can look at what we can do to stop that.”

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