What might Alison Muotri, the head of a lab in California, think in 2019, when he realized that his cell cultures, reproducing in a miniature piece of brain tissue, automatically started emitting electrical activity? Perhaps the famous line of Dr. Henry Frankenstein: “It alive! He is alive!“(“He is alive!“).
Revolutionary methods but no question
69 hise Sixth episode of science forScience podcast by Science and the future And 20 minutes, detailing the areas of application of this cellular engineering work that excites a large number of teams of scientists around the world. At the microphone, Hugo Galinier, journalist at Science and the future And Roman Clomis from 20 minutes Unveil these amazing feats for you that all depend on the ability of stem cells, the starting point of these experiments, to reproduce by cell division, self-structure and repair a specific type of cell, in this case neurons. Much of the research is not without raising ethical questions as pointed out by the Chair of the Inserm Ethics Committee, Hervé Chneiweiss, in an interview with Hugo Jalinière. The world is really wonderingIf you push these entities to maturity, they can one day develop some form of consciousness“.
All tissues and organs are affected
Thus, the brain, but also the liver, the heart, the skin, the muscles … not a single tissue or organ survives the trials. Last March, the list grew again with the first lacrimal gland organelles produced by a Dutch team. These tiny 3D cellular structures were designed to better study the phenomenon of dry eyes, and they even ended up shedding tears! At the University of Cambridge (UK), another team, after waiting 340 days, succeeded in developing the first model of a neurodegenerative disease: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (or Charcot’s disease).
If you are interested in this topic, you can find our articles “Organisms: Lab Brains Awakening” and “Towards Organisms on a Chip”. You can also dive into a world Sixth Science Archive all available or even Participate Free.