Animal Models - GEG Tech top picks

Research into brain development, traditionally based on animal models, benefits from the use of 3D brain organoids of human origin. Nevertheless, these organoids present challenges in mimicking the unique features of human brain development, such as complex expansion and differentiation. In a recent study, the generated fetal brain organoids (FeBOs) resembled various aspects of the human fetal brain, including their cellular diversity and transcription profiles. Moreover, the results of the study demonstrate that FeBOs can serve as a versatile platform for modeling brain cancer. Using regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) editing, mutations associated with brain disorders and cancers were introduced, which then led to observable changes in cellular behavior and drug response. These FeBO mutants, in particular triple knock-out lines, have been used in mutation and drug sensitivity assays, demonstrating the potential of evolutionary and reproducible modeling of brain cancer.

Working with animal models, Mexican researchers were able to cross the electroencephalic barrier, introduce a nanogel and achieve the growth of neurons within the gel, which shows that it is possible to promote regeneration of brain tissue.

University of Florida Health researchers have slowed a notoriously aggressive type of brain tumor in mouse models by using a low-carbohydrate diet.

Rat–human hybrid brains offer new ways to study human neurological disorders, but also raise ethical questions.

Zhao's team created an animal model that forms tumors in a part of the brain known as the choroid plexus. Using this model, which has increased levels of a key developmental protein called NOTCH, they discovered a new genetic pathway involved in the development of this portions of the brain.  The cells of the choroid plexus are unusual because they contain multiple primary cilia, hair-like projections from the cell that are important for detecting changes in their environment, signaling through a protein called Sonic Hedgehog.