Brain organoids derived from the stem cells of those with Parkinson's disease have been grown for about 30 days.

Enter the lab-grown mini-brain grown using stem cells from patients with ALS/FTD.

All that is published so far is 240 days, but within that time, the authors observed changes within two types of brain cells.

The destructive changes seemed to impact C9 neurons and another type of neural cells – called astroglia – both of which help manage muscle movement and mental abilities in the real human brain.

"Although these initial disturbances were subtle, we were surprised at just how early changes occurred in our human model of ALS/FTD," says neurologist András Lakatos from the University of Cambridge.

One of the more interesting findings from the ALS/FTD model was that a drug known as GSK2606414f, or GSK for short, could partially suppress some of the neuronal changes that seemed to occur early on in cortex development, including the clumping of toxic proteins, cell stress, and the loss of nerve cells.