Posted on 09/17/2026 3:40:21 AM PDT by DFG
Scientists have made mice with a remarkable amount of room for human brain tissue to grow.
By genetically engineering animals lacking part of their brain, researchers created a living model in which pea-sized clumps of human neurons could expand, mature and wire into a developing nervous system, ultimately coming to dominate the mouse cortex, the brain’s outer layer.
The model offers a new way to study human neural circuits and brain disease, researchers report September 16 in Nature.
“Our goal has been to make aspects of human brain development and function accessible for investigation, so we can develop therapeutics,” says Sergiu Pașca, a neuroscientist at Stanford University.
The idea of growing miniature brain structures in a lab dish emerged in the early 2010s, when researchers in Austria showed that stem cells could self-organize into 3-D tissue resembling aspects of the developing human brain. But these tiny clusters of human nerve cells, called organoids, lacked the connections and sensory inputs of a living brain.
In 2022, Pașca and his colleagues developed a way to transplant human organoids into newborn rats, eventually getting the human cells to make up about one-third of one side of the rat’s cortex. But rat neurons mature faster than their human counterparts, capping how much the human tissue could develop in this rodent model.
--snip--
That may be a relief to anyone picturing the lab mice from Animaniacs, the genetically enhanced rodents who spend each night plotting to take over the world. In Pașca’s lab, there’s little evidence of any plans for world domination. His mice, despite their mostly human-derived cortex, remain far more Pinky than Brain.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencenews.org ...
|
Click here: to donate by Credit Card Or here: to donate by PayPal Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794 Thank you very much and God bless you. |
The Rats of NIMH
so how much humani cells makes a creature human enough to qualify for civil rights, government benefits, and the ability to vote?
They used Biden and Trump brain cells, respectively for Pinky and the Brain.
Why go to all the trouble of creating them in a lab?
Indeed
They should have been checking donkeys.
They have about 1% human brain cells.
Enough to get them elected.
New!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.