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Scientists have transplanted (cấy, trồng) human brain cells (tế bào não) into the brains of baby rats, where the cells grew and formed connections.

It’s part of an effort (nỗ lực) to better study human brain development and diseases (bệnh) affecting this most complex (phức tạp) of organs, which makes us who we are but has long been shrouded (bức màn) in mystery (bí ẩn).

“Many disorders such as autism (tự kỷ) and schizophrenia (tâm thần phân liệt) are likely uniquely human” but “the human brain certainly has not been very accessible,” said said Dr. Sergiu Pasca, senior author of a study describing the work, published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

Approaches that don’t involve taking tissue out of the human brain are “promising avenues in trying to tackle these conditions.”

The research builds upon the team’s previous work creating brain “organoids,” tiny structures resembling human organs that have also been made to represent others such as livers, kidneys, prostates, or key parts of them.

To make the brain organoids, Stanford University scientists transformed human skin cells into stem cells (tế bào gốc) and then coaxed (dỗ ngọt, vỗ về, tán tỉnh) them to become several types of brain cells. Those cells then multiplied to form organoids resembling the cerebral cortex (vỏ não), the human brain’s outermost layer, which plays a key role in things like memory, thinking, learning, reasoning and emotions.

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