Growing Schizophrenic Brain Cells In A Dish Helps Neuroscientists Study Mental Illness Up Close
Studying mental illnesses involves complex brain-monitoring technology to watch how neurons and large-scale brain components are functioning or malfunctioning. But researchers are increasingly getting out of their patients' heads, monitoring brain cells in petri dishes instead. This is possible with stem cells, and it could yield plenty of new avenues for psychiatric research. Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind in San Diego are using skin cells from patients with schizophrenia, autism and other disorders, and producing induced pluripotent stem cells. These cells are then induced to become neurons, which are grown in a lab so the neuroscientists can monitor the cells' development or test potential new drugs. Related ArticlesHarvard Researchers Illuminate Connections Among Brain Cells in TechnicolorComputer Scientists Induce Schizophrenia in a Neural Network, Causing it to Make Ridiculous Claims8 Percent of Human Genome Was Inserted By Virus, and May Cause...