Today's new word is 'organoid', the outcome of "growing (neural) cells into more complex 3D structures... that mimic some of the structure and function of regions of the nervous system." The technique is useful because "neurons in these three- or four-part assembloids extend axons and connect with some specificity to other neurons (which) gives rise to emergent properties, such as the contraction of human muscle." They can be maintained long enough to emulate post-natal maturity and can be studied to find underlying causes of various conditions such as Timothy syndrome. An assembloid, meanwhile, is what researchers get when they "combined different types of brain organoids into structures... in which cells from different origins can intermingle."
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