US lab grows ‘human brain’

WASHINGTON, Aug 19, (AFP): An almost complete version of a tiny human brain has been grown in a US lab in a move that could bring major strides to the treatment of neurological diseases, a scientist says.

Rene Anand, a professor at Ohio State University, has grown in a dish a brain equal in maturity to that of a five-weekold fetus, his university reported.

“It not only looks like the developing brain, its diverse cell types express nearly all genes like a brain,” Anand said.

Around the size of a pea, the brain in a lab dish includes multiple cell types, all major regions of the brain and a

spinal cord, but lacks a vascular system, the university said. It was grown from human skin cells and is claimed to be the most complete brain of its type grown yet.

Anand presented his research at a military health event in Florida Tuesday.

Major scientific advances are usually published in peer-reviewed journals, where the claims are assessed independently before they are made public.