Uc Science Today

Want to know how our brain is formed and what causes changes in its structure? You could look at a mini-brain…this is emerging 3D technology created from stem cells. “Mini brains allow you to ask some questions that are more challenging to ask about a single cell essentially in isolation, vs. what happens when cells are moving in a three-dimensional space and interacting with each other in three-dimensions as well.” That’s neurologist Lauren Weiss of the University of California, San Francisco. She has been studying brain disorders in the lab by looking at neurons grown from skin cells. Weiss says a mini brain is the next step in research because it re-creates the structure of a real brain. “It is layers of cells that have different kinds of structures and functions, ultimately.” Using mini-brains Weiss hopes to study micro- and macrocephaly, autism and other developmental disorders.