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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Science
Ian Sample Science editor

Scientists create mice with part-human brains

Dashed white lines outline the xenocortical graft. Colours indicate the main fiber direction: green, top to bottom; red, front to back; and blue, side to side.
Map of estimated nerve-fibre pathways in the brain of a mouse. Dashed white lines outline the xenocortical graft. Photograph: S. Pasca lab, Stanford University

Researchers have created mice with half-human brains in an effort to understand and develop new treatments for disorders such as schizophrenia, epilepsy, cerebral palsy, intellectual disability and rare forms of dementia.

The scientists transplanted lab-grown human brain cells into animals that were engineered to be born without a cortex or hippocampus. This made space for the human tissue to grow inside the rodents’ skulls.

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