The brain is one of the most difficult body parts to study, especially because intrusive tests could not be done as the test subject could suffer a medical emergency which could lead to death. Thus, there are still a lot about the brain that we do not know.
This is the reason why the scientific community is very excited to announce the success of an experiment which made use of patient stem cells to grow mini brains in the lab. Although these so-called “mini brains” do not exactly resemble a person’s 3D brain, they do behave like the real thing which is very important in allowing scientists to probe and study these without possibly harming the test subject.
Of course, this does brings moral ramifications and raises questions, especially about consciousness and the human soul. Specifically, if a lab-grown brain is stimulated and comes to life as a living organ, will this have its own consciousness? Can a soul/consciousness claim this artificial brain?
We expect lengthy debates about this issue in the future but in the scientific community, this successful experiment is something to rejoice in. According to IFL Science, these tiny free-floating brains will be able to help scientists learn a lot of things about the brain and the central nervous system that have never been discovered before.
For example, these tiny brains could possibly help us finally find a cure for neuropsychiatric diseases like schizophrenia and autism or other brain disorders such as epilepsy and Alzheimer’s disease.
In the past, scientists could only study brains in post-mortems or through brain scans but the tiny lab-grown organoids could be the key to understanding the real thing. Of course, much still has to be done to replicate and fully use these tiny brains for research purposes but the possibilities are endless now that the first step has been completed.
This could mean better, personalized treatments for diseases and medical conditions in the future.
Creating Tiny Brains in the Lab
To create these mini brains, scientists from Stanford University created blank slate cells called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from five people. The cells were allowed to first grow in monolayers then moved to a container where 3D growth is encouraged.
When the cells began to group themselves together to create colonies, the researchers added a cocktail of molecules which led to these colonies becoming immature brain cells. The cells within these colonies formed star-shaped astrocytes and neurons.
According to the research report published on Nature, the ball of cells showed 3D arrangement similar to those in the human cortex and responded well to functional tests, revealing that “80% of the neurons in the spheroids could fire signals when stimulated, and 86% participated in network activity and displayed spontaneous activity similar to what we observe in the brain.”
Sources: IFL Science, Nature
