Current position in this corpus

Brain-organoid protocols in this collection now split into broad cerebral self-organization, forebrain patterning, posterior brain subregion protocols, long-term maturation, transplantation, and perturbation-ready neural systems.

Strong supporting sources

Working synthesis

  • Lancaster remains the self-organizing cerebral reference point, whereas Sloan and Ullah move toward cleaner forebrain or telencephalic control.
  • Eura, Zagare, Chen, Valiulahi, Pomeshchik, and Atamian extend the corpus into brainstem, midbrain, hindbrain, hippocampal, and cerebellar protocols rather than leaving it forebrain-dominant.
  • Giandomenico and Fitzgerald emphasize later-stage maturation and functional readouts, while Kelley and Meng show how transplantation or pooled perturbation can become the next experimental layer.

Main tension

  • whole-cerebral diversity versus region-specific precision
  • in vitro maturation versus host-assisted validation

Open questions

  • Which brain questions require a specific subregion protocol rather than a broad cerebral organoid?
  • What is the best tradeoff between regional control, long-term survival, functional readout, and experimental throughput?