By: Hannah Devlin Science correspondent |
Scientists grow ‘mini-brain on the move’ that can contract muscle
| Neuroscience | The Guardian
Cambridge researchers grew ‘organoid’ that spontaneously connected to spinal cord
Scientists have grown a miniature brain in a dish with a spinal cord and muscles attached, an advance that promises to accelerate the study of conditions such as motor neurone disease.
The lentil-sized grey blob of human brain cells were seen to spontaneously send out tendril-like connections to link up with the spinal cord and muscle tissue, which was taken from a mouse. The muscles were then seen to visibly contract under the control of the so-called brain organoid.
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