Scientists at Ohio State University said they were able to grow an almost complete copy of the human brain. A message about this appeared on the official website of the university.
The head of the study, Professor Rene Anand, said that the sample grown by his team matches the characteristics of a five-week-old embryo. It reproduces 99 percent of the genes present in the real brain, and all major departments are represented, but the blood vessel system is missing.
Anand did not provide a full report on the experiment, saying that it would appear after he received a patent for the technology. According to him, this is the most accurate biological model of the brain to date. He noted that previous researchers were able to copy only certain aspects of the brain.
It took about 12 weeks to grow the model. It is based on adult skin cells, which are reprogrammed into induced stem cells that can change the direction of their specialization and form any tissue in the body.
The researcher noted that the model does not receive sensory stimuli and the thought process does not go in it, which excludes possible ethical problems.
According to the scientist, the invention will be useful for studying the causes of various diseases of the nervous system and testing the effectiveness of drugs. Anand is the co-founder of NeurXstem, a startup dedicated to commercializing his brain-copying method.