Researchers at Johns Hopkins University in the United States have developed a new type of "whole brain" organoid that not only contains neural tissue from multiple brain regions, but also has preliminary vascular structures. This achievement was published in an academic journal, demonstrating for the first time the successful integration of various brain regions into a unified functioning organoid. This breakthrough is expected to open up new avenues for the research of complex neurological and psychiatric disorders such as autism and schizophrenia. At present, most of the brain organs mentioned in papers can only represent a certain region of the brain, such as the cerebral cortex, hindbrain, or midbrain. And what was cultivated this time is a preliminary fully formed whole brain organoid, which researchers call the "Multi Regional Brain Organoid" (MRBO). When constructing whole brain organoids, researchers first generated nerve cells from various brain regions and preliminary vascular structures in different culture dishes; Then, they are assembled using adhesive "bio gel" proteins to establish connections during development; With tissue fusion, this type of organ not only generates electrical activity, but also has the overall neural network response capability. MRBO is highly similar in terms of cell type diversity to the early stages of human embryonic brain development. Research has found that it contains about 80% of common types of nerve cells, and its overall structure is equivalent to the level of human fetal brain development up to around 40 days. Although its volume is much smaller than the real human brain, containing only about 6 to 7 million neurons, and the number of neurons in the adult brain can reach billions, this type of organ provides an unprecedented human brain cell model for studying whole brain diseases. In addition, researchers have observed early signs of the formation of the blood-brain barrier, which is of great significance in drug screening and neurological disease research. In the future, using whole brain organoids to test new drugs is expected to improve the success rate of neuropsychiatric drug development. At present, the failure rate of this type of drug in the first stage of clinical trials is as high as 96%. As animal models are still mainly used in the early stage, and human brain organoids are closer to the real development process, it is expected to significantly improve the screening efficiency. Researchers say that diseases such as schizophrenia, autism, Alzheimer's disease, etc. affect the entire brain rather than a single region. If we can see the origin of the disease earlier, we may discover new therapeutic targets. (New Society)