A new way to study brain disorders

Researchers have found a new way to study brain disorders. Neurologist Lauren Weiss of the University of California, San Francisco is growing brain cells out of simple skin biopsies taken from patients with autism and other developmental problems. “We can grow those cells in a lab and then turn them into stem cells, and ultimately into the cells of the brain. That’s a pretty amazing advance when you think about how challenging it is to study the human brain. Nobody wants to give you too much access to that.” Obtaining living neurons is complicated and may raise ethical concerns. So this new method solves these problems by effectively growing brain cells in petri dishes. “The technology has evolved very quickly. We are increasing the number of different types of neurons we can pretty consistently make in the lab." And that gives scientists more opportunities to study brain abnormalities. For Science Today, I’m Larissa Branin.