Ohio scientists grow brain in a lab

Anand added that such kind of work could prove good for human health for the reason that it provides better and more significant options for testing and developing therapeutics apart from rodents.

The lab-grown brain, which has the maturity of a five-week-old, is the most complete ever developed, The Independent reported on Thursday. There’s only so much one organ can do by itself, and requires the aid of other vitally important parts in order to depict the most accurate picture for a study specimen. Four years later, he had built himself a replica of the human brain.

The only important thing that’s missing is consciousness.

“In central nervous system diseases, this will enable studies of either underlying genetic susceptibility or purely environmental influences, or a combination”, said Anand. “Genomic science infers there are up to 600 genes that give rise to autism, but we are stuck there. You need an experimental system – you need a human brain”, he said.

Pluripotent cells, as the name implies, are stem cells that can be programmed to multiply and grow into practically any type of human tissue.

Anand’s method is proprietary and he has filed an invention disclosure with the university. The full details behind the techniques used by the researchers to support the pluripotent stem cells to become the replica brain are being kept confidential by the scientists.

But the researchers claim that this time “we have grown the entire brain from the get-go”.

High-resolution imaging of the organoid identifies functioning neurons and their signal-carrying extensions-axons and dendrites-as well as astrocytes, oligodendrocytes and microglia. The process took around 15 weeks. Anand, along with his colleague, biological chemistry and pharmacology research associate Susan McKay, observed maturation changes and allowed the model to continue to grow to 12 weeks. “We don’t know yet”, he said. The researchers claim that the brain can be used to investigate maladies like Alzheimers and traumatic brain injuries, but there’s a catch: the research has not been peer reviewed.

No bigger than a pencil eraser, the scientific team hopes that it will accelerate the studies of neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s, autism and post-traumatic stress disorder, once the replica brain is licensed.