Sloan Group

Steven Sloan is an American researcher who studied at Stanford University and is an associate professor at Emory University School of Medicine. He leads a laboratory that uses brain organoids to study the development of brain cells, particularly astrocytes (a type of glial cell). At the Brain Institute he has his own lab as well, where he conducts disease-related research and research focused on fundamental developmental biology.

Sloan is a pioneer in the field of brain organoids and uses these 3D structures to study brain tumors and neuropsychiatric disorders, among other things. Because it is possible to mimic specific brain areas with brain organoids, he hopes to gain more clarity about the molecular genetic causes of these disorders by applying various techniques. Ultimately, this could potentially lead to effective treatments.

Brain organoids: the great potential of a tiny ball of tissue

A spectacular step towards a better understanding of the brain

‘When we tell people we make organoids from human brain cells, they’re often shocked. They think we’re growing brains in our lab, but that’s not the case. The tissue we create by culturing pluripotent stem cells from human tissue has no blood vessels and lacks many components of a real brain. But the resulting ball of tissue can mimic a striking number of features of a developing human brain,’ says Steven Sloan, one of the earliest researchers working on culturing organoids.

How important are brain organoids for neuroscience research?

‘Very important. In brain organoids, we can study how a very small number of stem cell types in a developing embryo can create many different cell types in a human brain.” We teach them how to understand the rules for creating a specific cell type, which cells to connect to, and how to form a brain. Brain organoids are three-dimensional structures that you can see growing with your own eyes. That’s incredibly exciting.’

You also have to keep those organoids alive. How does that work?

‘We give them the right nutrients so they can self-organize. This also creates a bit of electrical activity. The neurons and glial cells develop at the right time in the right place, and establish small circuits with each other. Then you can, for example, release certain viruses on them to track specific cells.’

It’s also important to keep them alive for a long time. Why?

‘That has to do with my great interest in glial cells. For a long time, it was thought that glial cells only supported neurons so they could do their job properly. But they can behave like classic immune cells, are important for communication in the brain, and also for neural development; It’s possible that abnormal development of glial cells contributes to neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism and schizophrenia. Because glial cells are the last to develop, we need to keep brain organoids alive for a long time.’

Will brain organoids really help us discover the genetic causes of neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders?

‘I certainly think so. The field of biological organoids is barely ten years old and has enormous potential. We can now study the development of brain tumors, for example, but also track genes involved in neuropsychiatric disorders. The nervous system is so complex that, to have any hope of better understanding these disorders, we really need to delve deeply into the subject. Currently, no neuropsychiatric disorder can be cured. But technological advances in research are moving very rapidly. I therefore expect that we will be getting closer and closer to an actual therapeutic treatment.’