An in vivo and in vitro spatiotemporal profile of human midbrain development.

Summary: Scientists are using tiny, lab-grown "mini-brains" to study how the human brain develops and what goes wrong in certain diseases. To see if these lab models are accurate, researchers compared them to real human brain tissue from early pregnancies. They found that the lab-grown brains look and act a lot like real brains at that stage of growth! They even used these mini-brains to study a rare disease that affects how the brain handles a chemical called dopamine. This proves that these lab-grown models are great tools for learning about the brain and finding new treatments.