10 reasons why growing a human brain-in-a-dish is terrific

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CREDIT: Flickr/Scott

My brain! It’s my second favorite organ!” cried an aghast Woody Allen as his time-traveling character in 1973’s Sleeper, Miles Monroe, was about to have his head removed at a robot recycling plant. Because my brain is my first favorite organ, I found the news that pea-sized embryonic human brains are growing in a lab at the Austrian Academy of Science, published online in Nature, quite exciting.

The “cerebral organoids” take cell culture a giant step forward. These things aren’t just sheets or spheres of identical cells, but organized aggregates of different cell types that seemingly recapitulate a gestating human cerebrum. The organoids are the brainchild of Madeline Lancaster, a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Jürgen Knoblich.

Read the full, original story here: “10 Reasons Why Growing A Human Brain-in-a-Dish is Terrific”

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