BRAINtSERS · BRAIN organoids unTanglement with SERS

BRAIN organoids unTanglement with SERS

Neurological disorders remain a leading cause of mortality due to the lack of effective treatments, which is attributed to the limitations of current research models for neurological disorders, neurodevelopment, and drug interactions in the central nervous system. In vitro monolayer cell cultures and in vivo animal models have restrictions that impede translation of research and treatment to humans. The genetic and environmental cues in animals do not match those of humans, and two-dimensional cultures lack cellular diversity and interconnectivity, particularly in brain models. Human brain organoids provide an unprecedentedly accurate model for human brain diseases and developmental programs. In addition, Brain organoids derived from hiPSCs (human induced pluripotent stem cells) can mimic the exact genetic mutations and developmental progression of a disorder derived from a patient's genome, creating great prospects for patient-specific treatments and transplantation therapy. However, current techniques for analyzing brain organoids during growth and pathology evolution, such as imaging and genomic analysis, have limitations. Fluorescent imaging requires the labeling of target molecules, which can alter their behavior and introduce artifacts, while genetic sequencing irreversibly alters the sample, making it impossible to conduct further experiments on the same material. Therefore, it is imperative, especially for brain organoid to find methodologies that can fully characterize their structural and functional properties without interfering with the development. Raman Spectroscopy, being non-invasive and label free, could address these challenges allowing to get the whole biochemical information along the development of the organoid. Specifically, the action will provide: (i) a label-free, highly sensitive technique for quantification and detection of biomolecules in brain organoids, (ii) a minimally-invasive system for cellular phenotyping, thus a non-destructive method for characterization of brain organoids during developmental stages.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union