Neuropsychiatric and neurological disorders are characterised by complex symptoms and are difficult to classify and study due to a lack of reliable biological models. The EU-funded BRAINtSERS project aims to test the accuracy of protocols involving current brain organoids to represent an in vitro model of the brain and to further promote their technological development thorough the use of human stem cells. Researchers plan to characterise these brain organoids during all developmental stages and identify key biomolecules. Long-term, the BRAINtSERS in vitro system will have the potential to be applied in basic research but also for pharmaceutical testing, addressing a medical issue of great social and economic importance.

Neuropsychiatric disorders and neurological diseases have a devastating impact on patients’ lives and represent a heavy social and economic load for global societies. Despite the great social and economic importance, the complex symptomatology together with the lack of objective analysis methodology and the limitation of current biological models have made disorders difficult to classify and study. The recent development of brain organoids derived from human stem cells have enormous potential as a physiologically accurate downscaled in vitro model of the human brain. Even though this system offers promising approach for investigating the phenotypic foundation of these complex disorders, the lack of a reliable and non-disruptive system for investigating their properties limits their applicability in both basic research and pharmaceutical testing. The BRAINtSERS project aims to respond to this need combining advanced brain organoid models together with surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), providing a multidimensional dataset of a developing human neuronal tissue resolved both in time and space.