Human Cerebellar Organoids with functional Purkinje Cells

Research on human cerebellar development and disease has been hampered by the need for a human cell-based system that recapitulates the human cerebellum's cellular diversity and functional features. Here, we report a human organoid model (hCerOs) capable of developing the complex cellular diversity of the fetal cerebellum, including human-specific rhombic lip progenitor populations that have never been generated in vitro prior to this study. Two months old hCerOs form distinct cytoarchitectural features, including laminar organized layering and create functional connections between inhibitory and excitatory neurons that display coordinated network activity. Long-term culture of hCerOs allows for healthy survival and maturation of Purkinje cells that display molecular and electrophysiological hallmarks of their in vivo counterparts, addressing a long-standing challenge in the field. This study therefore provides a physiologically relevant, all-human model system to elucidate the cell type specific mechanisms governing cerebellar development and disease. Human cerebellar brain organoids were generated and grown to a 2-month time point. Three organoids were each individually dissociated and analyzed by scRNA-seq.