Miniature 'Human Brain' Grown in a Laboratory

Scientists have successfully grown a miniature "human brain" the size of a pea in an attempt to study neurological disorders, according to BBC News.

The 'human brain' has been developed to the developmental size of a nine-week old fetus but is not capable of thought processing.

The study which was published in the journal Nature has been used to help gain understanding into rare diseases.

The scientists at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences have finally reproduced the organ's earliest stages of development.

The researchers used either embryonic stem cells or adult skin cells to produce the part of the embryo that develops into a brain and spinal cord, also known as the neuroectoderm.

This was then placed in tiny gel droplets to give a scaffold for the tissue to grow. Then it was placed into a spinning bioreactor - a nutrient bath that supplies nutrients and oxygen.

"What are organoids are good for is to model development of the brain and to study anything that causes developmental defects", said Dr. Juergen Knoblich, one of the authors of the research.

"Ultimately we would like to move towards more common disorders like schizophrenia or autism. They typically manifest themselves only in adults but it has been shown that the underlying defects occur during the development of the brain" he said.