Nature cover: human neurons fill 90% of a mouse cortex in xenocortication study
anilkseth · x · 2026-11-03
Sergiu Pașca's team published a Nature cover study on "developmental xenocortication": researchers genetically suppressed a mouse's own cortex development, transplanted human stem-cell-derived brain organoids shortly after birth, and within three months human tissue filled over 90% of the mouse cortex by volume.
In this podcast, Pașca walks through how each prior advance in the field enabled this step, its limitations, and what the new human-brain model reveals about neural connectivity and development. Consciousness researcher Anil Seth and ethicist Nita Farahany unpack the ethical questions: what is it like, if anything, to be that mouse? How would we detect human-like capacities, and who decides how far this research should go?
Related event: Stanford's human brain organoids in mice make Nature cover(2 posts)→
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