This flurry of neon color above may look like a blurry photography of a particularly wild party, but in fact it’s the first ever sample of human serotonin neurons to be grown in the bottom of a Petri dish.
Scientists have long known about serotonin neurons — which release and take up the neurotransmitter, which is linked to mood and mental states —but they’ve never been able to grow them in the lab. Instead, they’ve used animals samples to study how they work. Now, researchers from the University at Buffalo have grown human serotonin neurons from fibroblasts — the cells that usually create the connective tissue in the body. The serotonin neurons can be seen in green in the above image.
via Gizmodo
