How should the global community monitor and guide research on human neural organoids and assembloids as the field rapidly expands in scope, scale, and sophistication? We designed and produced a three-day international convening at the historic Asilomar Conference Grounds, bringing together seventy scientists, ethicists, patient advocates, journalists, and policymakers to confront this question directly. Our approach combined plenary panels on the state of the science with seven working groups tasked with exploring possible oversight models, drawing on methods from stakeholder convening, deliberative facilitation, and horizon scanning.

We found remarkable convergence across a genuinely diverse group: participants agreed that an effective oversight system must be international and decentralized, must include patients and their advocates as partners rather than audiences, and must remain comfortable with ambiguity about unresolved questions like organoid sentience. There was broad consensus that guidance should be simple and actionable rather than bureaucratic, and that sustained, adaptive monitoring — not one-time reports — is what this fast-moving field requires. The full findings, design principles, and recommended next steps are detailed in our report: Toward Global Oversight of Human Neural Organoid and Assembloid Research. This project was supported by The Dana Foundation and The Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford University.

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