Spinal Cord Culture

Human organoids – clusters of cultured cells that mimic particular organs or tissues – enable researchers to study complex physiological and pathological processes in greater detail than mere cell cultures allow. They also enable testing of novel drugs. The human spinal cord organoid pictured is a perfect example of this utility. Containing an assortment of spinal cord cell types – neurons (green), astrocytes, and a type of immune cell called microglia – the organoids were lacerated to mimic spinal cord injuries and then treated with a novel mixture of cell receptors and scaffolding compounds previously shown to improve spinal injury recovery in mice. Laceration caused extensive cell death (red), inflammation and scarring. But this was minimised by the treatment, which also promoted significant neuronal regeneration. While these organoids won’t replace animal studies and clinical trials of new spinal injury drugs, they will provide a valuable and cost-effective tool for early testing.

Written by Ruth Williams

Ruth Williams

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Ruth is a freelance science journalist based in the US. She's a regular correspondent for The Scientist, and her work has appeared in The Lancet, Nature, Scientific American Mind, BBC Focus and elsewhere. Twitter @rooph

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• Image from work by Samuel I. Stupp Lab, in Nozomu Takata and colleagues
• Center for Regenerative Nanomedicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA
• Image originally published as 'Credit must be given to the creator' equating to a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Research published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, February 2026