Oleg Zabluda's blog
Friday, June 22, 2018
 
Neanderthal ‘minibrains’ grown in dish
Neanderthal ‘minibrains’ grown in dish
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At least two research teams are engineering stem cells to include Neanderthal genes and growing them into "minibrains"
[...]
Muotri focused on one of approximately 200 protein-coding genes that differ between Neanderthals and modern humans. Known as NOVA1, it plays a role in early brain development in modern humans and also is linked to autism and schizophrenia. Because it controls splicing of RNA from other genes, it likely helped produce more than 100 novel brain proteins in Neanderthals. Conveniently, just one DNA base pair differs between the Neanderthal gene and the modern human one.
[...]
Muotri has developed the modern human brain organoids to the stage where his team can detect oscillating electrical signals within the balls of tissue. They are now wiring the organoids to robots that resemble crabs, hoping the organoids will learn to control the robots' movements. Ultimately, Muotri wants to pit them against robots run by brain Neanderoids.
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http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/06/exclusive-neanderthal-minibrains-grown-dish
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/06/exclusive-neanderthal-minibrains-grown-dish

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