Perhaps even more remarkable is the ability of neuroscientists to harmlessly sample skin cells from an individual suffering from a poorly understood illness with genetic roots, such as autism spectrum disorder or schizophrenia, and to re-program that person’s cells back to a stem cell-like state, and then to redevelop them in the lab as brain cells. It is possible to direct stem cells to mature, for example, as brain cells, which are not normally accessible in ways that the cells of other bodily organs are. This remarkable ability, seemingly out of the pages of science fiction, has opened up new possibilities for studying the roots of psychiatric (and other) illnesses. A number of BBRF grantees and Scientific Council members have pioneered methods of directing human stem cells-the cells that are the “mothers” of all our cells-to specifically develop as neurons and other brain-cell types. During the last decade, neuroscientists have devised technologies that enable them to grow human brain cells under controlled conditions in the laboratory.
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