Brain Organoids: A New Model for Understanding the Human Brain
Scientists are finding ways to grow small, three-dimensional structures that resemble certain features of the developing human brain. These structures are called brain organoids.
Growing Human Brain Tissue in the Lab
Rather than being taken directly from a developing brain, organoids can be created from adult skin cells. Scientists first reprogram these cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which can then be guided to develop into neural tissue.
The result is a small collection of human cells that can reproduce some of the developmental processes seen in the brain. However, a brain organoid is not a miniature human brain. It does not have the full organization, complexity, or blood supply of an actual brain. Instead, researchers use it as a simplified model for studying certain aspects of human neural development.
Why Are Researchers Interested in Them?
One major advantage of brain organoids is that they provide researchers with a model based on human cells. This could make them useful for investigating neurological and neurodevelopmental disorders and for studying how potential treatments affect human neural tissue. They could also provide another way to test drugs alongside existing research methods. The growing interest in organoids has also led to major investments in human-based biological research. The US National Institutes of Health committed $87 million in 2025 to establish a standardized organoid modeling center, followed by more than $150 million in 2026 toward expanding human-based biological research.
When Brain Cells Meet Computers
The possibilities go beyond studying disease.
Researchers are also experimenting with connecting living neural cells to electronic systems. This emerging area is sometimes referred to as Organoid Intelligence (OI). The idea is unusual but relatively straightforward: instead of using only artificial hardware to process information, researchers can connect living neural tissue to electronic devices and observe how the cells respond to information.
An early example came in 2022, when Melbourne-based Cortical Labs developed DishBrain, a system in which cultured neurons were connected to microelectrodes and trained to play the video game Pong. The company has continued exploring this approach with its CL1 biological computer, including demonstrations involving the video game Doom. These experiments suggest that living neural networks can receive information, respond to feedback, and adapt their activity. Researchers describe this emerging concept as synthetic biological intelligence.
But Are These Really "Brains"?
This is where the terminology can become misleading. Calling an organoid a "mini brain" makes it sound like scientists have grown a tiny functioning human brain in a dish. That is not what these structures are. Brain organoids reproduce some features of brain development, but they lack many of the structures and systems found in an actual human brain. They are therefore better understood as models of particular aspects of human neural biology. That distinction is important because the technology is still developing.
The Ethical Questions
As researchers learn how to make organoids larger, more mature, and more interconnected, a different set of questions begins to emerge. At what point could a sufficiently advanced neural organoid potentially have some form of consciousness or awareness? If scientists eventually create increasingly complex systems from human neural tissue, would those systems deserve any form of moral consideration? These questions are difficult precisely because the technology is advancing faster than our understanding of where the boundaries should be. For now, fully autonomous biological intelligence remains speculative. But experiments combining living human neural tissue with electronic technology are already demonstrating that biology and computing can interact in ways that were once largely theoretical.
A New Kind of Biological Model
Brain organoids are still far from replicating the human brain. Their value comes from something more realistic: they give scientists a way to study selected aspects of human neural development using living human cells. As the technology develops, organoids could become increasingly useful in medical research while also forcing scientists, ethicists, and society to reconsider what happens when living neural tissue becomes part of a technological system.
The most interesting question may not be whether scientists can grow a brain in a dish, but how far they can reproduce the brain's abilities without creating something that raises entirely new ethical questions.
References
Agencies. (2026, August 13). Scientists are growing mini human brains in labs. The Guardian Chronicle. https://theguardianchronicle.com/scientists-are-growing-mini-human-brains-in-labs/
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