In a major breakthrough for neurological diseases and their cures, scientists have now developed a premature brain from skin cells in a laboratory. It is the first of its kind and scientists are optimistic that the brain when fully grown, will allow us to conduct surgeries like transplants, etc.
The bioscientists at the Ohio State University had managed to grow a brain that is 99% genetically similar to a 5-week old fetus’s brain and is also displaying similar characteristics. Rene Anand, the head of the team that achieved this remarkable scientific development, said that the brain is developing at the good pace and is starting to express almost all natural genes present in the brain. It will be useful in the treatment of diseases of the brain that cause much mental pain and agony. The new brain will serve as a crucial test subject for conducting therapeutics other than mice and rabbits.
It has all major regions of a brain like Spinal chord and multiple cell types, but it doesn’t have a vascular system in place that may slow things down a little. It is the first brain ever developed within the confines of a laboratory with the help of different human tissue. He presented these important findings in the military health system research symposium in Florida.
The inability of the current system to produce a vascular system for the brain including blood vessels. To do this artificially, an artificial heart would be given under the control of a brain and see if it produces the veins and capillaries required. The team will test the brain and even simulate different types of neurological diseases in it to see their progress and reach conclusion. The mathematical models and statistics for understanding human brain are insufficient according to a consensus within neurologists. We need an actual living brain to do these things on and with the development of this artificial one, we are now looking at better research that will lead to better understanding of various diseases.
