Neuroscientists grow a schizophrenic brain in a Petri dish

Neuroscientists at Columbia University grew a brain with schizophrenia in a Petri dish – scientists’ work published in the journal Nature Communications.

According to scientists, this organoid (a small copy of a lab-grown organ) successfully mimics the neural activity of the brain and will help identify the biological basis of both neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders and effectively test treatment methods. .

In their study, the researchers generated brains from mouse cells carrying the variants of genes associated with schizophrenia. The resulting organoids showed normal local communication between cells within cell modules but poor coordination of signaling in the overall network.

According to scientists, the network structures and signaling behavior of adult brains are less stable compared to healthy organelles.

When the researchers injected the organoid with drugs that improve cognitive abilities in mice, the cells of the enlarged brain became more stable and showed normal network activity.

The team took steps to tailor brain organoids to study other neurological disorders, including epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease.



Source: Gazeta

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