Nature：哈佛团队把「人脑类器官」培养了创纪录的5年时间，发现它们记录了时间的流逝

TL;DR - Harvard researchers maintained human brain organoids for more than five years and found that their molecular and epigenetic maturation closely tracked elapsed culture time. The model could enable studies of later-stage human brain development, aging, disease, and drug responses that short-lived organoids cannot capture.

• Single-cell RNA sequencing across eight time points covered 34 organoids; combined datasets included 110 organoids and nearly 425,000 cells.
• Organoid DNA-methylation age closely matched actual time in culture, recapitulating developmental steps observed in prenatal and early postnatal human brains.
• Fusion experiments showed older neural progenitors retained their developmental identity despite exposure to younger tissue, producing later-stage rather than early neurons.
• An optimized medium improved neuronal survival, synaptic density, morphology, and electrical activity, with strong activity bursts sustained for over two years.