Lab-grown miniature human brains could help fight disease: study

PanARMENIAN.Net - Scientists have grown miniature human brains from skin cells for the first time as part of a study into the development of the most complex of all our organs. The mini-brains are less than 4mm across, but researchers say they are equivalent in development to the brain of a foetus at about nine weeks' gestation.

According to Belfast Telegraph, previous attempts at growing brain tissue focused on culturing nerve cells in two dimensions on a flat plate of nutrients, but the new study used a droplet of nutrient as a three-dimensional scaffold on which the growing cells organised themselves into the mini-organ.

The scientists have called the primitive brains "cerebral organoids", and emphasised that the living structures are still far from being described as true human brains with a potential for self-awareness or consciousness.

The mini-brains were created from human skin cells that were converted into stem cells. This produced induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells which were then coaxed by chemical stimulants and nutrients to develop into mature brain cells that self-organised into the rudimentary structures of an embryonic brain.

Dr Knoblich said the organoids have already shed light on a condition called microcephaly, when the brain fails to grow to its correct size in the womb, and also could eventually help research into conditions such as autism and schizophrenia.