Harvard researchers keep brain organoids alive for five years, tracking development

A study published in Nature describes how researchers at Harvard University grew a human brain organoid from a blood sample and kept it alive in the lab for five years.

During the five-year period the team monitored transcriptional and epigenomic changes, finding that the organoid’s cells aged in a pattern that mirrors post-natal human brain development.

The senior author, Paola Arlotta, said the model could spark a wave of new therapies, offering a bridge between laboratory research and patient-specific disease studies for biotech and industry.

The approach begins with a simple blood draw, from which stem cells are extracted and differentiated into brain tissue, providing a long-term, patient-derived platform for biomedical research.