AMERICANALMANAC (Alan Benson) - Stanford researchers implant human brain cells into mice, raising ethical questions science hasn't answered
A Stanford University team has built what may be the most advanced human-animal brain hybrid ever created in a lab, and even the ethicists advising the project concede that no clear guidelines exist for what comes next. Sergiu Pașca, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford, led the research, which involved breeding mice […] The post Stanford researchers implant human brain cells into mice, raising ethical questions science hasn't answered appeared first on American Almanac .
A Stanford University team has built what may be the most advanced human-animal brain hybrid ever created in a lab, and even the ethicists advising the project concede that no clear guidelines exist for what comes next. Sergiu Pașca, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford, led the research, which involved breeding mice genetically engineered to lack most of their cerebral cortex, the outer layer of the brain responsible for thought, memory, and perception, and then implanting millions of lab-grown human brain cells into the vacant space. The results, published in the journal Nature , showed that the human neurons divided, expanded, became vascularized, and largely filled the gap within weeks to months. The technique…Open