First Near-Fully Formed Brain Grown In Lab, Ohio State Scientists Say

[IDemo]

Source: Huffington Post

Scientists at Ohio State University say they've grown the first near-complete human brain in a lab.

The brain organoid, if licensed for commercial lab use, could help speed research for neurological diseases and disorders, like Alzheimer's and autism, Rene Anand, an Ohio State professor who worked on the project, said in a statement Tuesday,

"The power of this brain model bodes very well for human health because it gives us better and more relevant options to test and develop therapeutics other than rodents,” Anand said.

The brain, engineered from adult human skin cells and grown in a dish for 15 weeks, is about the size of a pencil eraser, according to the university. It has the maturity of a 5-week-old fetal brain, and contains 99 percent of the genes in a fully developed human fetal brain.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/lab-grown-brain_55d39c50e4b07addcb447156

---

Maybe they'll name it AB Normal:

[BlueJazz]

1. Damn, it's already smarter than the Republicans running for office.

[IDemo]

2. They could have stopped much sooner

Known as the R-Complex, this part of the brain is comprised of the brain stem and the cerebellum. The R stands for Reptile. This section of the brain has been nicknamed the Reptile Brain due to the fact that the behavioral traits for which it is responsible are most often observed in and associated with reptiles. These include pure survival instinct, direct stimulus-response, fight-or-flight response, competition, aggression, domination, repetition, ritual, and the desire to hoard resources.

[MisterP]

17. "this hypothesis is no longer espoused by the majority of comparative neuroscientists in the post-

Last edited Tue Aug 18, 2015, 10:57 PM - Edit history (1)

2000 era"

[packman]

3. Quick - tell the Republicans about this

- "It has the maturity of a 5-week-old fetal brain" they can increase their maturity by 4 weeks. Also tell the Scarecrow and all those hungry zombies.

[benld74]

4. Zombie L-I-K-E!! BRAINS! BRAINs! MMMmmmmmmmm

[Orrex]

5. Jokes aside, if this cuts down on animal experimentation, then it's a world-changing breakthrough

k/r

[Metatron]

7. I completely agree with you. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

44. If only! Thanks for sharing your idea. It gives very many of us reason to hope for its success. n/t

[bananas]

50. Except it is an animal - and they make a logical, ethical, and scientific fallacy

From the article in the OP:

Speaking to The Guardian, Anand said ethical issues weren't a concern. “We don’t have any sensory stimuli entering the brain. This brain is not thinking in any way.”

He's expressing neuroscience dogma which is finally being overturned:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016120002

Watching a paradigm shift in neuroscience
http://bjoern.brembs.net/2015/03/watching-a-paradigm-shift-in-neuroscience/

Watching a paradigm shift in neuroscience
by Björn Brembs, March 26

When I finished my PhD 15 years ago, the neurosciences defined the main function of brains in terms of processing input to compute output: “brain function is ultimately best understood in terms of input/output transformations and how they are produced” wrote Mike Mauk in 2000. Since then, a lot of things have been discovered that make this stimulus-response concept untenable and potentially based largely on laboratory artifacts.

For instance, it was discovered that the likely ancestral state of behavioral organization is one of probing the environment with ongoing, variable actions first and evaluating sensory feedback later (i.e., the inverse of stimulus response).

<snip>

As one would expect, this dramatic shift in perspectives from input/output to output/input has led to a slew of recent publications which were not thinkable a mere 15 years ago.

<snip>

In the most recent annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, where I usually only find very few presentations on ongoing activity and how it leads to variability, there now were several posters on exactly this topic, seemingly out of nowhere.

<snip>

[roamer65]

6. Sounds like a perfect transplant for Rick Perry.

[Fearless]

10. I think you need one first for it to be considered a "transplant"

[lonestarnot]

8. Woah if you hook it up to some lips, can it talk?

[63splitwindow]

21. been there, done that...

[link:|

[lonestarnot]

25. That's no brain, that's a fucking asshole.

[Fearless]

9. Bush must be excited!

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

11. Uh-oh.

[RufusTFirefly]

12. Notice the first concern is licensing for commercial use?

Corporatism. You're soaking in it.

[Jerry442]

13. So high-level functioning that...

...before it was connected to any sensory inputs, it had started from the basic premise, "I think, therefore I am" and had got as far as deduced the existence of rice pudding and income tax.

Apologies to Douglas Adams

[MADem]

14. If only this technology had been available in the Year 2000......!!!!!!!

Dubya coulda used one of those....might have improved his decsion making talents....

[Augiedog]

15. Scott Walker says this brain will never get health insurance because it has a pre-existing condition

that makes it smarter than he is. The disembodied cerebral edifice declared it was running for the republican presidential nomination and is looking for a tooth as a running mate. It will scour nascar audiences in pursuit of said tooth and running mate. Donald the trump says he wants to see the birth certificate and will deport the brain and any tooth that supports said brain. Jeb Bush said that it is not his brothers missing brain and any suggestion that it has a Cheney-ish grin is merely coincidence and cannot be used as evidence in any future criminal actions.

[rurallib]

16. no effing wonder repubs hate science

pretty soon teenagers will be growing smarter things in the high school lab than the Republicans have had in 60 years.

[bucolic_frolic]

18. They'll never beat cat brains

for intelligence

Cats really know how to get what they want, and what is life
if it isn't that?

[rambler_american]

19. Great News!

This is great news for John McCain!

[Kelvin Mace]

20. No way this can go wrong...

"Scientists at The Ohio State University have developed a nearly complete human brain in a dish that equals the brain maturity of a 5-week-old fetus."

So, smarter than your average conservative.

[niyad]

34. a dish has the brain maturity of a 5-week old fetus?

[Sedona]

22. Abby Normal!

&list=RDyH97lImrr0Q#t=24

[Still In Wisconsin]

23. Hey Buckeyes...where are you keeping the 245 lb linebacker to drop this thing into?

You know, the one who also runs a 4.25 40?

(Sorry couldn't resist. Still hurting from that 59-0 beatdown)

[valerief]

24. Great! Now there's a treatment for teabaggers. nt

[Grassy Knoll]

27. I think the Consevatives.....

cut funding for Teabagurym research

[AnnieBW]

26. It's already smarter than a FOX News viewer

By a long shot!

[Octafish]

28. First words: ''I am not a crook.''

[6chars]

29. I don't get this part from OP's source

It has the maturity of a 5-week-old fetal brain, and contains 99 percent of the genes in a fully developed human fetal brain.

“If we let it go to 16 or 20 weeks, that might complete it, filling in that 1 percent of missing genes," Anand said. "We don’t know yet.”

[jeff47]

31. It's poorly worded in the article.

Every cell has every gene. You have "brain" genes in your foot, because every cell in your foot has all of your DNA. But in your foot, those brain genes are "turned off".

My guess is the scientists were talking about gene expression, not genes. Their mini-brain has "turned on" 99% of the brain genes.

[6chars]

32. That makes much more sense. Thanks!

[randome]

43. The brain is 'turned on' but can't do anything about it? How cruel!

[hr][font color="blue"][center]TECT in the name of the Representative approves of this post.[/center][/font][hr]

[Botany]

30. Now who could use a brain? Say somebody who started an unneeded war which made Iran ...

.... stronger and gave birth to ISIS




A national Championship and still time to make a new human brain ..... Go Bucks.

[riversedge]

33. the comment section is spot on..e.g"Step two: finding a conservative radio host willing to give it a

Mario Giordano · SUNY Plattsburgh
It immediately announced it was running for president.
Like · Reply · 18 · 2 hrs
Genevieve Friday King
GOP ticket?
Like · Reply · 2 · 25 mins
John Blaze · Seattle, Washington
Genevieve Friday King All it needs is a toupee.
Like · Reply · 1 · 5 mins
Dover Bill
Step two: finding a conservative radio host willing to give it a test drive?
Like · Reply · 8 · 2 hrs
Krikor Hagopian · Atlanta, Georgia
"It has the maturity of a 5-week-old fetal brain". It has full constitutional rights! You can't epxeriment on it. In fact, you need to let it come full term! What, you need tax payer dollars to continue to feed it...never mind.
Like · Reply · 6 · 1 hr
Miguel Perro · Duquesne University
Can it just go ahead and get a concealed-carry permit, or would it be hard to get fingerprints?
Like · Reply · 3 · 1 hr
Dharken O'Dale
Surgically implant it into one of the many GOP presidential hopefuls, all of them are short one.
Like · Reply · 4 · 1 hr
Elizabeth Matkowski Frederick
Finally, hope for Republicans.

[truthisfreedom]

35. Drive em crazy.

[longship]

36. Obligatory sleazy 50's SciFi reference.

Couldn't help adding this.

[burrowowl]

37. K&R

Very interesting!

[jtuck004]

38. I thought there were two? What happened to the other one...? n/t

[awoke_in_2003]

47. Eye-gor stole it. nt

[jtuck004]

48. Good. I was just hoping it didn't figure out how to leave by itself. n/t

[pnwmom]

39. A brain the size of a pencil eraser? Like that's something new.

We've got plenty of people with that size brain already.

[fredamae]

40. The Rush to Pre-Order

and reserve list out of this GOP controlled congress and state houses must be overwhelming - lol
But remember, it's the ones who think they're "ok-it's everybody else" who need them the most...but will never sign up

Oh, this is fun..

[Javaman]

41. in other news...

republican front runners, while openly condemning the "growing of a brain" in a lab, have secretly put in their own bids for a replacement of their own.

[Monk06]

42. Scientists discovered it plans to vote for Trump in the Republican Primary

[Judi Lynn]

45. Thanks for remembering Igor. n/t

[cyberswede]

46. Props for the YF reference.

[mike_c]

49. this is the best thread on DU today....

[Marthe48]

51. All of the animal parts they are poached for -

- please grow those too. Tusks, gall bladders, horn --- and flood the world with so much, it loses the attraction.