| Where | Melbourne, AU |
| Likes | Cricket, AFL, Linux, Cats |
| Pronouns | He/him/his |
I don't think people fully appreciate how apocalyptic things are for US science. I haven't received any new funding since 2024, but I'm still ok since grants are typically for 3 years. This means next year I will be completely out of funding and will have to fire everyone in the lab. It's not great.
In my 25-year career, I’ve never NOT had funding. I typically have 4 to 8 grants, which you need if you’re running an observation science program and have a technician, students, and postdocs.
Check out this preprint. We developed a method that allows for the longterm preservation of brain organoids. #organoids #brain #stemcells #universityofmichigan
Cryopreservation at ultra-low temperatures is a valuable tool for preserving cells and tissues used in research. However, few protocols exist for the preservation of brain organoid models. Current methods for preserving human cortical organoids (hCOs) rely on conventional slow cooling approaches with organoids suspended in a medium containing a cocktail of cryoprotectants. In contrast, we have optimized a vitrification technique previously used to cryopreserve human embryos and oocytes for application to hCOs. We have successfully cryopreserved hCOs that were generated by two different protocols. The vitrified organoids demonstrate a growth rate, cytoarchitecture, cell type composition and electrical activity comparable to non-vitrified controls. Our hCO cryopreservation method provides a useful alternative approach for bio-banking and cross-institutional collaboration using cortical organoids as their model system. Highlights Motivation Many methods of cryopreservation have been developed for the maintenance of cell lines, organoid models and tissues. Most organoid models have been successfully preserved using conventional slow-cooling methods; however, human cortical organoids have been difficult to preserve. Our findings demonstrate that the vitrification of cortical organoids preserves their structure, cell type diversity and function upon rewarming and continued culture. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.
We used NGN2-reprogrammed iPSC neurons with glutamatergic hyperactivity and tested phenytoin, perampanel, and carbamazepine.
Read the full paper here 👇
📄 Communications Biology
🔗 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-08194-6
#Neurotech #SBI #DrugDiscovery #Epilepsy #Organoids #BrainOnAChip #stemcells #bioinformatics #invitromodeling
This shows how DishBrain-like systems could:
go beyond rodent models
reduce reliance on spontaneous activity alone
offer functional assays for epilepsy and beyond
An early proof that SBI systems can support pharmacological discovery.
Traditional readouts miss the bigger picture.
By measuring:
bursting states
criticality (DCC, BR, SC error)
dynamic functional connectivity
…we captured richer, drug-specific neural responses that align with known mechanisms.
Only inhibitory compounds (not all ASMs) improved gameplay.
📉 Spontaneous hyperactivity dropped
📈 Performance during gameplay improved
🧩 Suggesting a link between glutamatergic modulation and goal-directed information processing.
Neural cultures played a simplified Pong game.
Without intervention, hyperactive cultures performed poorly.
💊 After carbamazepine:
✅ Longer rallies
✅ Higher hit/miss ratios
✅ Fewer aces
Structured stimulation reveals functional improvement.
Preclinical models rarely test how drugs affect goal-directed neural behavior.
Using DishBrain, we show how epilepsy-linked hyperactivity in human iPSC neurons affects gameplay — and how compounds like carbamazepine restore function.
David Ho
Hacker News
Rupert Rivett