Only a few years ago in Europe, scientists discovered that they could incubate human skin cells and coax them into becoming cells that mimic those found in the human brain. To create these “mini-brains”, the cells that divided and grew began to talk to one another like the neurons in a real brain, and once other research labs caught on, the practice spread quickly.
Now, research teams are hoping that the mini-brains will be able to provide us with insight into the ways in which neurological diseases such as Zika and Alzheimer’s disease affect the integrity of the human brain.
What Is a Mini-brain?
The mini-brain is a tiny organoid replication of the incredibly complex human brain. Using a 3D printed factory, scientists blend a specific cell mixture together with nutrients and growth promoters. After a few months, small reproductions of the human brain emerge in an incubator, just barely visible to the human eye.
It’s a ball of clustered cells that, when opened, closely resemble the brain of a human embryo. More importantly, the brains grow in much the same way a human brain grows, which allows researchers to look more closely at how diseases interact with developing brains.
Since mini-brains contain only a fraction of the number of cells in a fully developed human brain, they take significantly less energy to produce and don’t require scientists to harm a living human being.
What Can a Mini-brain Do?
Mini-brains can provide researchers with a tangible human brain sample from which they can study the interaction of diseases and neurological processes.
Already, scientists have uncovered some truths about the sudden and shocking onset of the Zika virus using the power of mini-brains. Since one of the chief issues surrounding the Zika virus involved birth defects in humans, lab animals could not offer much knowledge about how the human brain was affected.
Dr. Guo-Li Ming and Hongjun Song, mini-brain research specialists, contacted research biologist Hengli Tang at Florida State University with the suggestion of trying to study the Zika virus using mini-brains. Their gamble was successful: exposing the mini-brains to Zika showed the researchers that the infection attacked neural cells during brain development and turned them into an ideal environment for viral growth.
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| Cross-section of a brain organoid. Source: ca.gov |
Improved Testing and Greater Understanding
The discovery explained many of the symptoms of the birth defects that occurred as a result of exposure to Zika. If the research sees successful peer review, it could open doors to additional experimentation with the new technology. Scientists will be able to look more closely at even more interactions between neural conditions and the human brain, and may even be able to perform drug testing for neurological diseases on mini-brains.
Humankind could be looking at incredible strides in the treatment and abatement of diseases that affect the human brain, and with enough time, may be able to find new ways to slow or prevent the onset of such diseases. However, backlash about the ethics of growing human brains in a lab may prevent the development of additional mini-brains and, by extension, experiments on those brains.
However, mini-brains lack the neural pathways to achieve consciousness. They grow only to about 20,000 cells before development ceases and serve only as a simulation of true human brain interactions.
