In what could be a major step forward for personalized medicine, researchers have perfected a technique for growing miniature balls of cortical tissue—the key working tissue in the human brain—in a dish.
And much, like our brains, these simplified, petri dish brains are abuzz with neuronal activity.
As off-the-wall insane as this sounds, it isn’t just some mad science experiment. These tiny, 3D structures function much like the outer mantle, or cortex, of the brain of the person from which they were derived. In the future, similar models could be used to study the brain circuitry of people suffering from neurological disorders, and perhaps, to genetically engineer personalized treatments.
via Gizmodo
Image: Human cortical spheroids, growing in a dish via Sergiu Pasca / Stanford University
