LONDON: Growing human brains in a dish is opening up unprecedented opportunities for neuroscience research.
Ethical concerns can make the study of the human brain particularly challenging, but a new technique allows scientists to grow model brains in a dish by genetically engineering adult skin cells. In a presentation at the Military Health System Research Symposium, a group of researchers from Ohio State University reported that they were able to use this technique grow such a “brain organoid,” similar to the brain of a five-week-old fetus.
Anand’s lab-grown brain is the size of a pencil eraser and contains 99 percent of the genes found in a complete human brain.
“It not only looks like the developing brain, its diverse cell types express nearly all genes like a brain,” said Rene Anand of Ohio State University in a statement. “We’ve struggled for a long time, trying to solve complex brain disease problems that cause tremendous pain and suffering. The power of this brain model bodes very well for human health, because it gives us better and more relevant options to test and develop therapeutics other than rodents.”
Through genetic engineering, researchers can turn skin cells harvested from adults into pluripotent stem cells. These are the same type of stem cell found in human embryos that have raised ethical concerns — but scientists can now avoid the issue by making them out of skin cells. This particular type of stem cell is so valuable because pluripotency means that it can develop into any organ.
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