'minibrains' grown from stem cells in lab, page-4

pa31's last posts:
"We are Australian's not idiots". " The science may well be worth while or not"
" And of course this news has an immediate effect on the future of MSB".

Your comments above surprise me.

Harvard and Stanford are two of the Worlds most prestigious Universities and the study is funded by the NIH and headed up by Professor Sergio Pasca.


The Pasca lab is interested in deciphering the molecular and cellular mechanisms of neuropsychiatric disorders. The ultimate consequences of this work may well be profound in terms of mental health.

These “minibrains”, grown in a petri dish from collections of stem cells, are helping researchers better understand neurological conditions like autism and epilepsy and the cluster of brain cells is essentially at the same stage of development as a two-month-old fetus. Clearly this particular scientific work is in it's very early stages.

One of the opportunities that Hot Copper allows is for the dissemination of information. In this case interesting work using stem cells that many readers may not be aware of. I am simply extending the range of possibilities that stem cells represent in the paradigm shift in medicine that is underway.

I suspect that any new developments in the area of mental health may interest you.