{"id":235573,"date":"2026-04-20T18:06:42","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T23:06:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/mini-brain-like-structures-grown-in-lab-may-help-scientists-treat-diagnose-and-stage-alzheimers-disease"},"modified":"2026-04-20T18:06:42","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T23:06:42","slug":"mini-brain-like-structures-grown-in-lab-may-help-scientists-treat-diagnose-and-stage-alzheimers-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/mini-brain-like-structures-grown-in-lab-may-help-scientists-treat-diagnose-and-stage-alzheimers-disease","title":{"rendered":"Mini brain-like structures grown in lab may help scientists treat, diagnose and stage Alzheimer\u2019s disease"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 4\/3; object-fit: contain;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CJa5eQvddZA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Scientists from Johns Hopkins Medicine report new evidence that clusters of brain tissue derived from the cells of patients with Alzheimer\u2019s disease may be used to evaluate how certain patients with the neurodegenerative condition may respond to drugs commonly prescribed to treat psychiatric symptoms of the disorder. The findings, based on a study of lab-grown brain tissues known as organoids, contribute to a growing body of evidence that brain organoids may also one day be used to more precisely develop and prescribe treatments for subgroups of patients with Alzheimer\u2019s disease, which is the most common form of dementia, and affects more than seven million Americans.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, the researchers found that tiny particles, known as extracellular vesicles, which are secreted by organoids, may contain cellular information that could help scientists find new biomarkers to diagnose and stage Alzheimer\u2019s disease. A report of the findings is <a href=\"https:\/\/alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1002\/alz.71273\" target=\"_blank\">published<\/a> in Alzheimer\u2019s &amp; Dementia.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur study suggests that large-scale, patient-derived brain organoids and the vesicles they secrete can help us stage Alzheimer\u2019s disease, investigate the mechanisms that drive it and assess how patient subgroups may respond to different treatments,\u201d says study leader Vasiliki Machairaki, Ph.D., associate professor of genetic medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scientists from Johns Hopkins Medicine report new evidence that clusters of brain tissue derived from the cells of patients with Alzheimer\u2019s disease may be used to evaluate how certain patients with the neurodegenerative condition may respond to drugs commonly prescribed to treat psychiatric symptoms of the disorder. The findings, based on a study of lab-grown [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,412,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-235573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-genetics","category-neuroscience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235573\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}