Roughly one in 30,000 babies are born with smooth brains. They go on to suffer from severe developmental difficulties and a relatively low life expectancy.

Scientists from the Weizmann Institute of Science in the central Israeli city of Rehovot sought to understand more about the physical and biological factors that cause the brain to wrinkle, but with existing methods for growing in vitro brains, it was very hard to monitor development.

That led the Institute’s Dr. Eyal Karzbrun to develop a new approach to growing organoids — simplified, miniature versions of bodily organs produced in test tubes.

In order to allow for high-quality optical imaging and microscope tracking of wrinkle development, Karzbrun managed to use embryonic stem cells to grow a “mini-brain” that was round and flat with a thin space in the middle.

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