J. Knoblich (OeAW) awarded €2.8M ERC grant to explore human cortical networks using cerebral organoids
23 June 2026
Jürgen Knoblich of the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences receives European Research Council grant to open new directions in human cortical networks research by employing innovative in vitro and AI approaches. The project will receive approximately €2.8 million in funding.
By engineering chimeric brain organoids with controlled ratios of excitatory and inhibitory neurons and analysing readouts for each ratio, the Knoblich team will determine which types of neurons are responsible for specific network patterns.
In the second phase of the project, the organoid technology will be leveraged to model epilepsy and autism. These models will be analysed using machine learning to understand how cellular composition influences the activity of entire neural networks.
Human neurodevelopmental disorders have so far been typically modeled and investigated in model organisms. However, critical species-specific differences in brain genetics, physiology, and anatomy preclude faithful recapitulation of clinical presentation and etiology of these disorders in animals, resulting in missed opportunities to better understand the human neural network dynamics and failures to translate promising preclinical results to meaningful benefits for patients.
By contrast, brain organoids can be derived from patients to study the effects of patient-specific genetic mutations on disease severity, genetically engineered to identify molecular regulators of cell function and differentiated in a controlled manner to dissect the role of individual cell types. The innovative human-based methods that will be employed by Knoblich group are anticipated to generate novel, human-relevant insights into the mechanisms of complex human neurological disorders and pave the way for much-needed treatments.
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