Once again advanced technology has allowed scientist to grown the first mini human brain in a laboratory. Their success may lead to a new way of understanding the human brain and the way they work and how they develop. Maybe now we can use this to understand why disorders such as schizophrenia and autism occur.

The mini brain, a  “Cerebral Organoids” which are grown by human stem cells in a lab based in Austria. This is the first time any scientists have actually managed to replicate how brain tissues develop in three dimensions.

One of their studies focused on a biological model of how a rare brain condition “Microcephaly” develops. This suggests that in future references scientist can now use the same technique to model disorders such as autism or schizophrenia that affects people worldwide.

Paul Matthews, a professor of clinical neuroscience at Imperial College London who wasn’t involved in the research but quoted “A major new tool for understanding the cause of major developmental disorders of the brain”

The main mystery for scientists is how the brainstarts from a simple tissue, and then the human brain develops it into the most complex known natural structure. It makes it extremely difficult for researchers to gain an understanding of what went wrong or how to treat major common disorders of the brain.

So how is this even possible? The system is not optimized for generation of an entire brain. Their goal was only to analyse the development of human brain tissues, and then create a model system that they can transfer knowledge from animal models to a human setting. The success of the mini brain was first used develop a rare neurological condition in which people develop an abnormally small head and identify what cases it. Making it very clear the mini brain is a long way from actually creating a fully functioning human brain in a lab.

The human brain is known to be the most complex thing in the world. To see that scientist are actually trying to break down, study and develop appropriate treatments for the most common disorders by testing it on a prototype brain is awesome!