Welcome back to Reading the Research, where I trawl the Internet to find noteworthy research on autism and related subjects, then discuss it in brief with bits from my own life, research, and observations.
Today's article represents a probable step forward in all kinds of brain-related research. The jargon and specific language in this article is plentiful, so to summarize: researchers at Harvard have basically discovered a way to grow specific human brain cells. It's been possible in the past to grow brain cells, but not to control that growth in a useful way. Assuming the technique is valid and can be reproduced, it may soon be possible to grow brain cells from living humans with brain-related conditions or diseases. Those cells can then be grown into clusters and used in experiments without harming the human donor.
Basically, assuming this method works, we could kiss mouse models of autism goodbye forever. This would be fantastic.
I haven't written a whole lot on mouse models, which are, for now, the main way researchers have been trying to understand and experiment with autism. But my complaint (which is accurate, by the way) is that while mice are excellent creatures and can teach us many things, autism doesn't have a singular cause or even a few causes, so any mouse model is not going to be a good representative. The thing is, we can't just experiment willy-nilly on humans, because of pesky things like "human rights," "ethics," and "morals." ( <- sarcasm) So mouse models are what researchers have mainly had available to work with.
Replacing those with actual human brain cells would make for much more accurate representations of autistic people. That makes for better science, and in turn, more valid, accurate results. We already have genetic databases of thousands of autistic children and adults. Imagine if we had databases of brain cells, too. You could run broad tests across a dizzying variety of autistic people, seeing what anti-depressants, nutritional supplements, and other treatments were likely to work for the broad population.
More relevantly to parents and autistic adults, you could, for a price, grow cells into a cell cluster, and try various interventions on those cells. The treatments that seem to help, you could then take home and try yourself. It could make the Russian roulette of anti-depressants a thing of the past. It could save a lot of money, a lot of pain, and a lot of time.
Needless to say, I really hope this method works, and can be done cheaply, very soon.
(Pst! If you like seeing the latest autism-relevant research, visit my Twitter, which has links and brief comments on studies that were interesting, but didn't get a whole Reading the Research article about them.)
Today's article represents a probable step forward in all kinds of brain-related research. The jargon and specific language in this article is plentiful, so to summarize: researchers at Harvard have basically discovered a way to grow specific human brain cells. It's been possible in the past to grow brain cells, but not to control that growth in a useful way. Assuming the technique is valid and can be reproduced, it may soon be possible to grow brain cells from living humans with brain-related conditions or diseases. Those cells can then be grown into clusters and used in experiments without harming the human donor.
Basically, assuming this method works, we could kiss mouse models of autism goodbye forever. This would be fantastic.
I haven't written a whole lot on mouse models, which are, for now, the main way researchers have been trying to understand and experiment with autism. But my complaint (which is accurate, by the way) is that while mice are excellent creatures and can teach us many things, autism doesn't have a singular cause or even a few causes, so any mouse model is not going to be a good representative. The thing is, we can't just experiment willy-nilly on humans, because of pesky things like "human rights," "ethics," and "morals." ( <- sarcasm) So mouse models are what researchers have mainly had available to work with.
Replacing those with actual human brain cells would make for much more accurate representations of autistic people. That makes for better science, and in turn, more valid, accurate results. We already have genetic databases of thousands of autistic children and adults. Imagine if we had databases of brain cells, too. You could run broad tests across a dizzying variety of autistic people, seeing what anti-depressants, nutritional supplements, and other treatments were likely to work for the broad population.
More relevantly to parents and autistic adults, you could, for a price, grow cells into a cell cluster, and try various interventions on those cells. The treatments that seem to help, you could then take home and try yourself. It could make the Russian roulette of anti-depressants a thing of the past. It could save a lot of money, a lot of pain, and a lot of time.
Needless to say, I really hope this method works, and can be done cheaply, very soon.
(Pst! If you like seeing the latest autism-relevant research, visit my Twitter, which has links and brief comments on studies that were interesting, but didn't get a whole Reading the Research article about them.)
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