Scientists from Johns Hopkins University have created what they call the “next generation of brain organoids” which connect different regions of the brain into one whole-brain organoid. Scientists hope to use this breakthrough to increase the speed and efficiency of drug trials for nueropsychiatric disorders. The resulting MRBO is far removed from a fully-formed human brain, containing only 6 to 7 million neurons instead of the tens of billions found in a typical human brain. Related Story This Is Your Brain on Extreme Heat“This is the new generation of brain organoids, which is a great improvement to the modeling of brain development and the pathophysiology of the fetal brain,” the authors write. Having a reliable platform that more closely mimics the human brain in miniature will hopefully make drug development faster and more efficient.