Lab Grown Neural Structures
From Japan’s RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology comes this news about growing brain tissue in the lab: “. . . . researchers first established that under specific conditions, culturing human embryonic stem cells with fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2) leads to neural differentiation particular to the midbrain/hindbrain region–the location of the cerebellum–within three weeks, and the expression of markers for the cerebellar plate neuroepithelium–the part of the developing nervous system specific for the cerebellum–within five. These cells also showed early markers that are specific to developing Purkinje cells, granule cells, or deep cerebellar projection neurons–all types of neurons only found in the cerebellum.” This suggests, if only tantalizingly, that it may be possible to grow “living prosthetics” for brain transplantation. MORE
Image Credit: RIKEN and MDTMag.com