Scientists grow most complete brain ever

It has the maturity of a 5-week-old fetal brain, and contains 99 percent of the genes in a fully developed human fetal brain. In fact, the brain organoid could permit rapid and accurate testing of experimental drugs for brain conditions before the clinical trial stage, as well as studies of genetic and environmental causes of neural disorders. According to a report presented by lead researcher Dr. Rene Anand on Tuesday at the 2015 Military Health System Research Symposium, the brain was engineered from adult skin cells manipulated to become pluripotent stem cells, which are capable of growing into any type of body tissue. “We’ve struggled for a long time trying to solve complex brain disease problems that cause tremendous pain and suffering. This brain model… gives us better and more relevant options to test and develop therapeutics”.

Anand, who began his quest four years ago, studies the association between nicotinic receptors and central nervous system disorders. That’s probably true with something this tiny and minimally undeveloped, but what about a brain that’s larger and further along in its growth?

It was grown from skin cells and is claimed to be the most complete brain grown yet.

We know what you’re thinking. “We don’t have any sensory stimuli entering the brain”. Various sources at the university’s Technology Commercialization Office told me through a spokeswoman that the school hasn’t licensed Anand’s proprietary methods to his company yet, for instance.

However, it is suspected that the technique used is similar to that of Shinya Yamanaka, the first person to successfully reprogram mature cells into pluripotent stem cells.

High-resolution imaging of the organoid identifies functioning neurons and their signal-carrying extensions – axons and dendrites – as well as astrocytes, oligodendrocytes and microglia. Be that as it may, the brain model was found to behave like the real deal.

Scientists spent 15 weeks developing the model system and observed expected maturation changes along the way.

The brain’s still “missing” about 1 percent of its genes, but Anand thinks it’s likely that they’d be expressed if the brain were allowed to grow past the 12-week point. The US military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is also interested in the research, Anand said, so that it could test for the effects of toxins and their antidotes.

Following the creation of the original model, Anand and colleagues have created brain organioids that model Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and autism.