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posted by martyb on Thursday November 09 2017, @11:08PM   Printer-friendly
from the have-they-not-read-HHGTTG? dept.

Tiny human brain organoids implanted into rodents, triggering ethical concerns

Minuscule blobs of human brain tissue have come a long way in the four years since scientists in Vienna discovered [DOI: 10.1038/nature12517] [DX] how to create them from stem cells.

The most advanced of these human brain organoids — no bigger than a lentil and, until now, existing only in test tubes — pulse with the kind of electrical activity that animates actual brains. They give birth to new neurons [open, DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2016.04.032] [DX], much like full-blown brains. And they develop the six layers [open, DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2017.09.047] [DX] of the human cortex, the region responsible for thought, speech, judgment, and other advanced cognitive functions.

These micro quasi-brains are revolutionizing research on human brain development and diseases from Alzheimer's to Zika [open, DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2016.04.032] [DX], but the headlong rush to grow the most realistic, most highly developed brain organoids has thrown researchers into uncharted ethical waters. Like virtually all experts in the field, neuroscientist Hongjun Song of the University of Pennsylvania doesn't "believe an organoid in a dish can think," he said, "but it's an issue we need to discuss."

Those discussions will become more urgent after this weekend. At a neuroscience meeting, two teams of researchers will report implanting human brain organoids into the brains of lab rats and mice, raising the prospect that the organized, functional human tissue could develop further within a rodent. Separately, another lab has confirmed to STAT that it has connected human brain organoids to blood vessels, the first step toward giving them a blood supply.

Ethicists triggered once again.

Also at Inverse, Express, and Daily Mail (included for contrast).


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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Friday November 10 2017, @01:14AM (4 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Friday November 10 2017, @01:14AM (#594960) Journal

    I can't speak for the AC but yeah.

    The humans can actually fuck your life up.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 10 2017, @02:17AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 10 2017, @02:17AM (#594993)

    Do you have any idea what a mouse could do to you with a human brain? And it would have no mercy, or sympathy, or fellow-species feelings! Be afraid, be very afraid. (And of course, the obvious rebuttal is that the first thing a mouse would do with human brain would be to escape. More afraid.)

    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Friday November 10 2017, @02:57AM (2 children)

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Friday November 10 2017, @02:57AM (#595004) Journal

      I'll bribe it with some cheese.

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      • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday November 10 2017, @06:42AM

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday November 10 2017, @06:42AM (#595054) Journal

        Doesn't work this way, not that cheap and fast. You'll need to lobby to it with cheese.
        This will teach you the lesson of never giving anything a human brain, we are fucked up as many as we are, don't need more. (I suppose this is pragmatical ethics in action).

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      • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday November 10 2017, @06:45PM

        by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Friday November 10 2017, @06:45PM (#595269) Journal

        But then it will want a cookie,

        and some milk.

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