September 9, 2022
Keio University School of Medicine
Brain organoids, due to their structural and functional similarity to living tissue, hold promise for application as disease models. A research group led by Professor Hideyuki Okano and Project Lecturer Hiroko Shimada from the Department of Physiology, Keio University School of Medicine, has improved the method for creating brain organoids from iPS cells. They successfully reproduced amyloid plaque-like structures, one of the major pathologies of Alzheimer's disease (AD), in brain organoids generated from iPS cells derived from AD patients. Furthermore, by using Adeno-associated virus (AAV) to force the expression of mutant tau protein in brain organoids, they succeeded in creating next-generation tauopathy model brain organoids that mimic tau fibril formation. These dementia model brain organoids can be considered miniature brains that reproduce parts of the pathology. They are expected to become a useful foundational technology applicable to elucidating the pathogenic mechanisms of dementia, drug screening, and the validation of drug candidates.
These research findings were published online in the academic scientific journal Cell Reports Methods on September 8, 2022 (EST).
Please see below for the full press release.