Does the artificial brain, an "organoid" that will allow futuristic experiments

Contains all types of cells that make up the human cortex, and, under the biological profile, is a kind of miniature brain and has been developed in a test tube. It is an organoid and biological model most similar to a real human brain, which has never been reached before. A group of researchers from Case Western Reserve University, who announced it in the journal Nature Methods, developed it. The researchers were able to get the mini-brains through insertion into the model of a particular type of cell, the oligodendrocytes after developing them, along with the others, from the patient's stem cells. "We now have a more accurate representation of the cellular interactions that occur during the development of the human brain," said Paul Tesar, professor of innovative therapies and badociate professor of genetics and genome at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine. University. Oligodendrocytes are essential because they produce myelin, a fatty substance that envelops and supports the connections of nerve cells, as does the isolation around an electrical cable. Without myelin, nerve cells can not communicate effectively and can deteriorate. Many neurological diseases result from malformations of myelin, including multiple sclerosis and rare pediatric genetic diseases. Organoids function as true models that allow the establishment of therapies adapted to each patient. The researchers are able to create a small organoid from each patient's cells and thus test the effectiveness of the drugs. Experiments in this direction have already been conducted with interesting results. The research team has indeed generated organelles in patients with Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease, a rare but fatal genetic disease of myelin. "Pelizaeus-Merzbacher's disease is a complicated disorder to study because of the many mutations that can cause it and the inaccessibility of the patient's brain tissue," said Zachary Nevin, PhD, co-author of the study. "study," but these new organelles allow to study the brain tissue of many patients simultaneously and test potential therapies ".