Researchers Grow Tiny Human Brain In Lab

schwit1 writes: A team of researchers from Ohio State University claim to have grown a human brain in their lab that approximates the brain of a five-week-old fetus. They say the tiny brain is not conscious, but it could be used to test drugs and study diseases, but scientific peers urge caution. "The brain, which is about the size of a pencil eraser, is engineered from adult human skin cells and is the most complete human brain model yet developed, [the researchers say]. ... Anand and his colleagues claim to have reproduced 99% of the brain’s diverse cell types and genes. They say their brain also contains a spinal cord, signalling circuitry and even a retina." The team's data has not yet been peer reviewed.

Comments

Shocking

[U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M]

When a reporter asked the tiny brain how it felt, it replied "Kiiiiiillll meeeee".

Re: Shocking

[jeffb (2.718)]

There is a lot of lab work that makes me squeamish. Come to think of it, there's even more stuff that happens outside a lab that makes me squeamish, but still produces important benefits for my life and many others.

I have kids myself, and I understand how having them can make you empathetic in new ways. This certainly isn't a bad thing.

But suppose your baby were diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disease. Would you still reject research that relied on techniques like those described here? Would you reject a treatment or cure, with proven efficacy, because its development had relied on this sort of model? Would you subject your child to experimental therapies that had some chance of success, but some chance of horrible, painful failure, if you instead had the option of trying them first on a model like this grown from your own child's skin cells?

Like I said, some lab work makes me squeamish. I respect the importance of Institutional Review Boards to keep abuses in check. But, on balance, I'm glad that researchers continue to push into new avenues like this, and I expect that the research will eventually prevent a great deal of human suffering.

Re: Shocking

[U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M]

Where's the line between "a few cultured brain cells" and "a brain that has a consciousness"?

Re: Shocking

[Chris Johnson]

Where's the line between 'brain that has a consciousness' and 'Skynet, Elon Musk's worst nightmare'?

Google could easily afford to grow a brain the size of ten thousand human brains. Would there be network effects of some kind, or a transition akin to the way turbulent flow passes a threshold and goes into chaos from normal oscillation? At what point is a brain a super-brain and are humans near that threshold?

Interesting times we live in. Someone, somewhere, WILL try it.

Re: Shocking

[mjm1231]

Define "Human brain activity". Please explain how it can be differentiated from "squirrel brain activity", "snake brain activity", etc. Otherwise, this is a completely meaningless phrase.

Re: Shocking

[ChrisMaple]

Hey moron, who are you going to blame for spontaneous abortions? Whose lives are you going to impoverish because they can't afford to support a child, especially if the child is going to have extreme defects requiring continuous connection to expensive medical equipment?

Most people claiming "all abortions are crimes" are basing their statements on their religious beliefs. Take your religion and shove it into that dark, moist place where your head already is.

Consciousness

[Anonymous Coward]

How do they know it's 'not conscious'? (Note: I am an atheist.)

Re:Consciousness

[angel'o'sphere]

What has being an atheist to do with knowing if an artificial grown brain is conscious?

We only know that at that stage of development the brain does not generate brain waves, so the scientists assume it has no consciousness yet.

Cue the Kneejerk

[VorpalRodent]

I'm not sure how I feel about this research...and that's pretty much why I'm all for this. We don't understand enough to be able to say whether or not this should be happening, and this is the best way we know how to move forward. This is something that doesn't directly harm anyone, and we have no reason to believe that any sort of consciousness exists in it. This should be an obvious win-win that could potentially benefit everyone.

Certainly, this is going to trigger all kinds of knee-jerk responses from a lot of folks. I get that, but those are also the kinds of responses that are regularly made in the absence of any solid understanding of what's going on. That's why we had limited stem cell research for so long. This isn't mad scientist war crimes type stuff. This is the best way to study the human brain without actually stealing one from an unwilling donor.

I don't know how we reconcile the fact that some people have a religious objection to messing with the parts that we're made of and the fact that there's huge benefits to be gained, but we can't dicker around and make everyone happy. Sometimes we just need to get stuff done so that we can say "Just be happy with your cure for ALS."

Re:Cue the Kneejerk

[Mr D from 63]

I wonder if they can stimulate a knee-jerk response in this mini-brain.

Re:How did this pass an ethics review?

[damn_registrars]

It passed an ethics review because it started from cultured skin cells. Short of implanting them into unwilling participants or using them to attempt human cloning, there is very little that you are prohibited from doing with cultured skin cells. No lives were taken in the process of this experiment.