“Big things have small beginnings,” says Michael Fassbender in Prometheus as he stares in awe at an organism nearly too small for the human eye to see. Similar astonishment is now occurring in Austria where scientists have created what are being called “mini-human brains” from stem cells in a lab. Picturing a human brain shrunken down 10 or 14 times? Don’t be; it’s not quite like that.
According to CBS News, Jeurgen Knoblich is the coordinator of the study and he describes it as “…A car where you have an engine, you have the wheels — but the engine is on the roof… that car would never drive, but you could still take that car and analyze how an engine works.” This accomplishment could open up a wide range of potential discoveries of the brain, as well as stem cell advancements for mankind.
During early life, stem cells are the basis from which most other cells come from and both animals and humans have stem cells. Scientists typically work with either embryonic stem cells, which are from in-vitro fertilization produced embryos, or somatic stem cells, which are from adult tissues. Scientists have been able to successfully activate a stem cell into becoming a specialized cell, such as a liver cell.
The National Institute of Health states that in 2006 they discovered how to “reprogram” a specialized cell into a stem cell. In doing so, they have been able to grow some sections of body parts in a lab such as a liver and trachea, according to Forbes, but never before fully functional, three dimensional sections of a “mini-brain.”
A discovery like this is bound to create controversy. Since stem cell research began, there have been disputers waiting on the sidelines to halt any and all advancements on the subject. There is opposition about where embryonic stem cells come from: the embryo. Taking stem cells from the embryo leaves it unusable for reproduction and thus results in the uproar of ethics, according to TIME. Now scientists are able to take adult skin cells and revert back to an embryonic state, so the need of taking the stem cells from actual embryos is less needed. According to UCLA Today, embryonic stem cells can transform into any type of cell in the human body and are more useful, unlike adult stem cells which are limited.
Embryonic stem cells come from a woman’s egg that she has willingly donated to a laboratory to undergo in-vitro fertilization and knew it would be used for the purposes of extracting stem cells from, according to the National Institute of Health. With this fact comes opponents to the research because the embryos are destroyed in this process and thus “puts an end to a potential life,” says The Christian Post.
I can understand where these critics are coming from, but I do not agree with the belief that it is immoral. The ending of this embryo’s “potential life” if it “potentially” was implanted into a woman’s uterus and “potentially” was successful at attaching to the uterine lining, and “potentially” went through the full term, and “potentially” came out a living baby is too many potential situations for me. Instead, this embryo will be used in scientific endeavors that will most likely one day result in cures for debilitating, life threatening diseases.
Some people also worry what could possibly be done with these stem cells. We know they can transform into specialized cells for the brain or liver, and, in fact, there have been several successful attempts at growing three-dimensional, functioning human liver and brain sections, according to The New York Times. Although only sections of the liver and brain have been created, I have a feeling people picture a fully grown organ ready to be put into someone’s body. What has actually been created, with the liver at least, is more or less a patch that could one day be placed in the body of someone to aid in repairing a damaged liver, according to The New York Times.
Although creating fully fledged organs in a lab is not where we are at today in science, it is absolutely possible to get there one day. Our intellect as a species is ever evolving, and one section of science cannot be left behind. The brilliance of the human mind is astonishing and intimidating, and even I am afraid. As a scientist myself, I am not afraid of science but of what mankind could one day do with it.
Despite the unknown, some good might come out of the research. Instead of trying to fight it, try to help it become what you want it to. Stop picturing a Frankenstein coming out of a lab, and instead picture cures for cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, diabetes and other cruel diseases that could cripple your loved ones.
In the successful study of the “mini human brains,” the stem cells were put into a special concoction of nutrients to nudge it in the right direction “to capitalize on the cells’ innate ability to organize into complex organ structures,” according to Reuters. What is the most complex organ structure in the human body? The brain. They then grew what’s called the neuroectoderm (this is the layer of cells in an embryo that is responsible for brain and nervous system development), then they placed the cocktail in a bioreactor which has the perfect amount of available oxygen and nutrients to grow cerebral organoids, a.k.a. mini-human brains. Astonishingly enough, it worked.
We now have the first successful cerebral organoids with visible function. The brains have neurons firing and sectionalized tissues denoting separate sections of the brain responsible for separate things. The mini masterpieces are four millimeters in size and are paving the way for future discoveries and lives.
The cerebral organoids took just 20 to 30 days to develop and soon after, the cause of microcephaly, a disorder in which the brain develops incorrectly and thus results in an abnormally small brain, was determined which will help to find a path of prevention for this mutation, according to The Scientist. Such a short period of time and scientists are already hot on the trail of finding out how to prevent it so normal brain development and function can ensue. Next, the Austrian biologists, and probably hoards of other scientists, will try to better study other neurological diseases such as autism and schizophrenia, or Alzheimer’s and depression, says CBS News.
This type of research can’t be done on animals because stem cells and the nervous system development are too different, according to The Scientist, and “the organoids could help to bypass the limitations of these animal models, providing a more accurate representation of human brains.” Rather than poking and prodding around a human brain that is still inside the living individual’s skull, which I’m sure people are not lining up to volunteer for, the cerebral organoids grown in a lab offer an opportunity to bypass hurdles that medical science has never been able to overcome.
This is monumental history in the making and the close-minded critics are not going to be able to deny it forever, although they probably hope they can. When a judge granted federal funding for stem cell research in 2011, Dr. David Prentice, Family Research Council’s senior fellow for Life Sciences, said to The Christian Post, “This is unfortunate, as this allows the flow of taxpayer funds to continue for this unethical, scientifically unworthy embryonic stem cell research.” I don’t understand how stem cell research can be called scientifically unworthy.
The mini-human brain creation has already been used to model the development of microcephaly, according to the original publication of the study in Nature on August 28, 2013. If one of these opponents of stem cell research were watching a loved one deteriorate from cancer and a cure was available because of stem cell research, do you think they would turn it down because of ethical reasons?
According to UCLA Today, it could cure Parkinson’s disease, blindness, heart disease or any number of disorders that will decrease quality of life and eventually life itself. These are things we all will most likely have to face one day.
The research team acknowledged that it will be a long time before anyone is able to grow a fully-functioning brain in a lab. I’ll admit it is intimidating to think one day it could be possible to grow body parts in a lab that are fully functional. The brilliance of scientists is both amazing and terrifying. For the critics that are against research that delves into how to create an ideal brain or heart or anything else, I say, “Science is never bad. Humans can be bad.”
Avery Twible can be reached at avery.twible@spartans.ut.edu