Humans are a highly complex organism with more than 87 billion individual cells, which makes it very difficult to completely record and examine them. The organoids of the human brain developed by Madeline Lancaster and Jürgen Knoblich at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences – organ-like, artificially produced microstructures a few millimetres in size – represent a real paradigm shift: The small brain-like, self-organizing structures made from human stem cells are similar to the human embryonic brain. This makes it possible to study molecular processes in living human brain structures. With this technology, researchers around the world could gain significant new insights into how the human brain is formed. It also provides new insights into the causes of epilepsy, autism and microcephaly. Learn more in this short tour!