Publications

This paper establishes a coculture platform combining encapsulated human iPSC-derived astrocytes with neuron-astrocyte-microglia organoids, directly enabling in vitro testing of neuroinflammatory modulators in organoid systems. For investors, it represents a convergence of cell therapy and organoid technology with a clear path toward implantable neuromodulatory devices.

Key finding: Alginate-encapsulated human astrocytes engineered to express IL-1Ra reduced organoid reactivity to inflammatory cytokines and were successfully implanted into rodent brain while secreting the therapeutic protein.

Adjacent to brain organoid electrophysiology via shared interest in cortical circuit-level neural activity and inhibitory interneuron dynamics; not a brain organoid electrophysiology project itself. For investors, the demonstration that behavioral strategy differentially recruits defined interneuron circuits provides circuit-level targets relevant to therapeutic intervention.

Key finding: Individual mice use mixtures of visual comparison and statistical timing strategies, and the Vip-Sst disinhibitory circuit in visual cortex is selectively activated during the visual comparison strategy.