3D Mini Brains That Can Be Used To Study Alzheimer's Disease Developed

Monday, February 15, 2016

Scientists have developed tiny 3D 'mini-brains' that they claim mimic some of the human brain's structures and functionality and can be used to study diseases such as Alzheimer's and autism.

The creation of these 'mini-brains' could dramatically change how new drugs are tested for effectiveness and safety, researchers said. These balls of brain cells grow and form brain-like structures on their own over the course of eight weeks. Performing research using these mini brains should be superior to studying mice and rats because they are derived from human cells instead of rodents, according to reserchers.

One of the disadvantages of drugs that look promising when tested in animal models is that they fail once they are tested in humans, resulting in great loss of time and money, said study leader Thomas Hartung, professor at Johns Hopkins University in US. Much better information is expected from these balls of cells than from rodents. The future of brain research will include less reliance on animals, more reliance on human, cell-based models, he said. Researchers created the brains using what are known as induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). These are adult cells that have been genetically reprogrammed to an embryonic stem cell-like state and then are stimulated to grow into brain cells.

The 350 micrometer mini brains can be used to study Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis and even autism, the researchers claim.

 

Source: rttnews.com