Certain neurological disorders, such as Dravet's syndrome, are complex to treat because they exhibit high rates of drug resistance and have a high variability among patients. To find the most effective treatment, it is often necessary to try different combinations of drugs with each patient, a process that can cause side effects. Finding bespoke solutions would speed up finding the most appropriate pharmacological treatments and improve patient lives, as well as reduce costs and time of medical care.

This is the goal of the OrganAId project, which will receive 46,500 euros from Caixaimpulse Validate, an acceleration programme run by Fundación “La Caixa”. It is an initiative led by researchers at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE, UPF-CSIC) Sandra Acosta and developed in collaboration with researcher Oscar Lao, Population Genomics team leader of the CNAG-CRG.

Their proposal is to obtain stem cells from patients to create brain organoids and use them to test the effects of drugs. To test how organoids react to each treatment, they will develop imaging algorithms that examine changes in the morphology and structure of each organoid, evaluating the effectiveness and toxicity of drugs.ç

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