Scientists have taken a major step toward treating spinal cord injuries that cause paralysis.

In lab dishes, researchers at Northwestern University grew tiny organoids of the human spinal cord. Then, they injured the samples and administered a treatment that helped the tissue repair and regenerate.

“We decided to develop two different injury models in a human spinal cord organoid and test our therapy to see if the results resembled what we previously saw in the animal model,” biomedical engineer Samuel Stupp says.