© National News and PicturesA magnified picture of an organoid, three to four millimetres across, with a structure similar to that of a human brain is shown.
From what makes us right or left-handed to why we develop autism, there are many mysteries about the human brain we are yet to solve. Some of these questions can be answered by studying the brains of other animals like mice, for example. But this isn't possible for other phenomena that are unique to human brains.
Researchers are now growing hundreds of tiny human brains in labs, in an attempt to understand what gives us unique disorders like autism and schizophrenia - and the method they use to create these brains is surprisingly simple. Scientists across the world are developing
cerebral organoids, or mini brains, to solve a variety of problems. Many of these groups are trying to understand other
complex neurological diseases that are unique to humans, like autism and schizophrenia.
One such researcher is Madeline Lancaster, who works at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Medicine in Cambridge.
The brains are created using cells. The team uses skin cells but, they could start with any cell type. 'The brains develop in the same way you would see in an embryo,' Dr Lancaster told
BBC Future.
They turn these cells into stem cells, using proteins, and as these grow, brain cells begin to develop. The researchers starve the cells and, for an unknown reason, the brain cells seem to be the most robust ones, so they survive. These brain cells are placed in a special jelly and put into an incubator.
© National News and PicturesScientists created pea-sized brains from a patient's skin that could lead to cures for common neurological disorders such as schizophrenia and autism. Image shows a comparison between a developing brain (left) and the organoid (right) that the team created.
The researchers in Dr Lancaster's lab are using these brains to study a variety of conditions. 'Our current interests
focus on other neurodevelopmental disorders like autism and intellectual disability, by introducing mutations seen in these disorders and examining their roles in pathogenesis in the context of organoid development,' Dr Lancaster says on her project page. The first 'brain in a bottle' was grown by stem cell scientists in 2013, who hoped it would lead to treatments for neurological and mental diseases.
The 'organoids', three to four millimetres across, have a
structure similar to that of an immature human brain. Just like a normal brain, the organoids are divided into
grey matter, made up of neurons, and
white matter, a fatty tissue composed of their spindly 'tails'.
Each is also composed of specific regions, like the human brain. Professor Juergen Knoblich, of the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology in Vienna, derived the iPS cells (induced pluripotent stem cells) from the connective tissue of a patient with microcephaly. This is a rare but devastating genetic disorder in which brain size is dramatically reduced, leaving the sufferer with severe mental disability. Like many neurological conditions, the disease has been difficult to study in mice because they do not share the same brain complexity as us.
© National News and PicturesUsing stem cells - master cells that can turn into almost any cell type in the body - researchers grew skin cells into 3D tissue that mimics a brain. Image shows a cross-section of an entire organoid.
The team used a
3D matrix scaffold that mimics the environment of a human embryo and special lab devices, called spinning bio reactors, which produce nutrients and oxygen, to grow the brains. 'Ultimately, we would like to use them to study more common disorders like schizophrenia or autism as it has been shown the underlying defects occur during the development of the brain,' Professor Knoblich said at the time. 'We are satisfied - or we hope - we will be able to model some of these defects as well.'
The original goal was to produce a biological tool that can be used to investigate the workings of the brain, better understand brain diseases, and test new drugs. The goal for many researchers is to develop a brain exactly like a human's.
But some researchers say this would be a step too far. Dr Martin Coath, from the Cognition Institute at the University of Plymouth, questioned why anyone would ever want to create a 'real' human brain. 'A human brain that was 'fully working' would be conscious, have hopes, dreams, feel pain, and would ask questions about what we were doing to it,' he said.
'Something we have grown in the lab, but on a much simpler level than a human brain, might be hooked up to electronic eyes, ears, and hands and be taught to do something - maybe something that is as sophisticated as many simple living creatures. That doesn't seem so far off to me.'
The World follows a Destroyer, the god of this world, the Father of lies. Pay close attention to the wording of any scientific breakthrough article. They are not what they seems to be. The headline promises "We have found a cure for..." only to find out when we bend down for a closer look that the article itself is filled with mights and maybes, perhaps, and somedays.
This headline promises that they are growing human brains in a jar, outside of the body. But when you read the article itself you see that there is a twisted mouth at work here, and twisted mouths speaks lies. These are not brains at all. These things are named "organoids". They are similar, it's said. But ya'know, similar is not 100%. Similar is not a brain at all. You see, here is the truth. One Creator, El Elohim, created us. One Creator who is greater than us, bigger than us and more powerful than us. He is called the Word of God in the book of John. "In the beginning was THE WORD, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This same one was in the beginning with God.. All things were made by Him and nothing that was made was made without Him. In Him was life and that life is the light of man."
Now keep that in mind please. Here is a world that is following after the created things, and denying there is a God named El Elohim, contending we are SELF-created. Yet, these guys cannot even find a cure for the common cold. Man is god? How come then that man cannot create life? How come then is the Bible right when it says that man will call himself god, but never be able to create like only God can do? A God creates. "All things were made (created) by Him (The WORD OF GOD) and nothing that was made was made without Him."
Why? Why can THE WORD of God create and man cannot? The next sentence tells us why. "In Him was life...In Him was life....In Him was life...and the life was the light of men."
Only the life-giver can create. Only the life-giver. The man of today, who thinks he's god, cannot give something he doesn't have, and he does not have eternal life in him, so he speaks with a twisted tongue and says we're growing human brains in jars, just like that movie, but it turns out those tiny little jarred brains are not tiny brains at all. If man could create, instead of just destroy, he wouldn't find a compelling need to lie at every turn.
"Believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved." Jesus is coming soon. Prepare your heart. Make straight your path.
Do not assume.