Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40107269›Full record

ReviewNeuron2025

Exploring human brain development and disease using assembloids.

Sih-Rong Wu, Tomasz J Nowakowski

Abstract readReview
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in Neuron, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
18citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

18 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Review
  3. Engineering brain organoids: from neurodevelopmental modeling to translational barriers.Journal of artificial organs : the official journal of the Japanese Society for Artificial Organs · 2026
    Review
  4. Article
  5. FABP7 controls radial glial scaffold stability during human cortical development.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026
    Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Review
  9. Parabiosis, Assembloids, Organoids (PAO).Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026
    Review
  10. Review
  11. Article
  12. Review
  13. Review
  14. Review
  15. Article
  16. Review
  17. Review
  18. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Sih-Rong WuDepartment of Neurological Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Tomasz J NowakowskiDepartment of Neurological Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA; Department of Anatomy, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA; Weill Institute for Neurosciences, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA; Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA. Electronic address: tomasz.nowakowski@ucsf.edu.

Funding

Assessing Genomic, Regulatory and Transcriptional Variation at Single Nuclei Resolution in the Brains of Individuals with Autism Spectrum DisorderR01MH125516 · NIMH · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO · PI ARNOLD KRIEGSTEIN, Tomasz Nowakowski · 2021 to 2026
$3.8M
Neurodevelopmental defects of the thalamocortical pathway as a convergent feature of psychiatric disordersR01MH128364 · NIMH · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO · PI Tomasz Nowakowski, JOHN L. R. RUBENSTEIN · 2023 to 2026
$3.0M
Developmental Timing During Cortical DevelopmentR01NS123263 · NINDS · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO · PI Tomasz Nowakowski · 2022 to 2026
$2.1M
NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH125516NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH128364NINDS NIH HHS R01 NS123263
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

How the human brain develops and what goes awry in neurological disorders represent two long-lasting questions in neuroscience. Owing to the limited access to primary human brain tissue, insights into these questions have been largely gained through animal models. However, there are fundamental differences between developing mouse and human brain, and neural organoids derived from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) have recently emerged as a robust experimental system that mimics self-organizing and multicellular features of early human brain development. Controlled integration of multiple organoids into assembloids has begun to unravel principles of cell-cell interactions. Moreover, patient-derived or genetically engineered hPSCs provide opportunities to investigate phenotypic correlates of neurodevelopmental disorders and to develop therapeutic hypotheses. Here, we outline the advances in technologies that facilitate studies by using assembloids and summarize their applications in brain development and disease modeling. Lastly, we discuss the major roadblocks of the current system and potential solutions.

Indexed as

BrainNervous System DiseasesAnimalsCell CommunicationCell MovementHumansNecrosisStress, Physiologicalassembloidcell-cell interactionco-cultureneurodevelopmentneurological disorderorganoid

Identifiers

PMID40107269
PMCPMC12022838

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.