Nature Neuroscience · 4 August 2026 · From issue 16
In lab-grown brain tissue, immune cells survived over 6 months and showed Alzheimer's warning signs.
Julien Klimmt, Carolina Cardoso Gonçalves et al., A reproducible three-dimensional model of human brain tissue to investigate physiological and disease-associated microglia phenotypes, Nature Neuroscience.
A lab-grown ball of human brain tissue can now keep its immune cells alive for more than six months, something earlier lab models struggled to do. This tissue contains the three main brain cell types found in real brains. When scientists built in Alzheimer's disease features, the tissue showed the same warning signs seen in real patients, including sticky protein clumps and inflammation. An antibody treatment cleared the clumps and reversed many disease signs in the immune cells.
How long brain immune cells survived and worked normally inside the lab-grown tissue.
Lab dish model only, no human brain data yet.
Integrity screen: passed (3 checks) Checked 17 August 2026. Retraction record: none. DOI resolves at doi.org. Metadata record found (Nature Neuroscience). Read the source
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