A team of scientists has grown a miniature brain in the lab. The brain has a spinal cord and muscles attached to it. They hope that the brain will make it easier for them to study neurological diseases like motor neuron disease.
The brain cells were grown from human stem cells. The scientists also took muscle and spinal tissue from a mouse. Scientists were able to see the brain muscles contract. Madeleine Lancaster was one of the lead authors of the study. She works at the Medical Research Council’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology.
The scientists used a new method to grow the brain from stem cells. Scientists had previously tried to grow a brain from stem cells. However, the brain was able to reach a more sophisticated stage of development with this new method. The brain is similar to the one of a 12 to 16 week fetus.
However, the scientists stated that the brain is too small to have any feelings, consciousness or thoughts. The human brain has 80 to 90 billion neurons. The mini-brain only has a few million neurons.
There were several steps involved in creating the mini-brain. The scientists grew the brain from the stem cells. After that, they used a vibrating blade to cut it into small pieces. The cells were then placed into a nutrient-rich membrane. It was kept inside of a culture for a year.
While the scientists were growing the brain, they created a spinal cord for a mouse embryo. The brain cells were able to send out neuronal connections, which caused the muscles to contract. Madeleine stated that the purpose of this study was to help scientists study the human brain better so that they can get a better understanding of why things go wrong.
Gray Camp works for the Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology, which is located in Switzerland. He was not involved in the study, but he is excited about the research. He thinks that this study will be a big step for science.
