Brain damage is a scary thing, and there are a lot of ways that it can happen. The brain’s plasticity means that sometimes people can recover lost functionality, but wouldn’t it be nice if we had the ability to actually rebuild damaged brain tissue? Well, thanks to 3D printing and stem cells, that ability may not be far away! I’ve seen articles for a while now about using stem cells to grow replacement organs, but I honestly didn’t expect to see brains on the list.
In this new study, the University of Oxford researchers fabricated a two-layered brain tissue by 3D printing human neural stem cells. When implanted into mouse brain slices, the cells showed convincing structural and functional integration with the host tissue.
The cortical structure was made from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs), which have the potential to produce the cell types found in most human tissues. A key advantage of using hiPSCs for tissue repair is that they can be easily derived from cells harvested from patients themselves, and therefore would not trigger an immune response.
The hiPSCs were differentiated into neural progenitor cells for two different layers of the cerebral cortex, by using specific combinations of growth factors and chemicals. The cells were then suspended in solution to generate two ‘bioinks’, which were then printed to produce a two-layered structure. In culture, the printed tissues maintained their layered cellular architecture for weeks, as indicated by the expression of layer-specific biomarkers.
When the printed tissues were implanted into mouse brain slices, they showed strong integration, as demonstrated by the projection of neural processes and the migration of neurons across the implant-host boundary. The implanted cells also showed signalling activity, which correlated with that of the host cells. This indicates that the human and mouse cells were communicating with each other, demonstrating functional as well as structural integration.
The researchers now intend to further refine the droplet printing technique to create complex multi-layered cerebral cortex tissues that more realistically mimic the human brain’s architecture. Besides their potential for repairing brain injuries, these engineered tissues might be used in drug evaluation, studies of brain development, and to improve our understanding of the basis of cognition.
I think it’ll be interesting to see what comes of this, and what a living brain can or can’t do with new tissue. Beyond that, having brain tissue on which to experiment, without having to use a living person, could end up being a huge deal for understanding our brains, and how to fix or adjust them. You can find more, including images and diagrams, at the link above.
And now I’m going to go try to drain all the goo out of my sinuses.
OH NOES THIS IS THE MAGA REPROGRAMMING KILLERY WAS TALKING ABOUT!!!
Yep. The 5G Marburg zombies were just a distraction!
When they do this for arthritic joints, I will back it.
Also re-growing amputated limb segments.
Assuming we can keep civilization from collapsing, I think there will be exciting advancements in medicine this century. Hopefully preventing collapse will bring access to those advancements to the general population, rather than reserving them for the rich.
Now the race begins between silicon-based superintelligence and 3D printed carbon-based superintelligence.
I would not be surprised if L. Con Musk buys this tech to repair the broken brains of his NeuraStink experiments, then repurposes that tech to fix Tesla’s self-driving cars by linking in a 3D printed brain to do the AI driving. He could also print one to be Xitter’s CEO…
Honestly, the thought of growing brains to act as computers horrifies me. If they’re grown from human OR animal tissue, there’s every reason to believe that they’ll develop feelings the way humans or animals would, even if their “sensory inputs” are different. Feels a little too close to making cloned slaves, to me.
And why is the ethical question (those feelings, both the ones of the manufactured organic intelligence and yours) different for intelligences made from non-organic molecules? Would an intelligent robot be any less a slave than a cloned one? I don’t think there is any difference, but many people do.
No, I don’t think there’s much difference, once you have such a person.
The difference here is that we already know that functioning brains give rise to consciousness. That’s just one of the things brains do, and there’s no reason to think a lab-grown brain, made of the same stuff, would be different. The moral hazard, for lack of a better term, comes pre-installed.
Would an intelligent robot be any less a slave than a cloned one?
Depends on how you define “intelligent.” The things we currently call “AI” sure don’t seem anywhere near our equal, even if they can beat most humans at chess.
I don’t think there is any difference, but many people do.
Is there really a robot you can’t tell from a human?
Raging Bee,
Is there really a beehive you can’t tell from a human? That’s about the equivalence I see in our best machine intelligences to natural ones. If humanity exists long enough to create an equal to ours, then will you consider enslaving it OK? Or, as in Abe’s comment about 3D printed human brains feeling like cloned slaves, will you consider enslaving them OK? Did you even read the previous few comments for the context of my remarks that you so cleverly enwrapped in straw?
If humanity exists long enough to create an equal to ours, then will you consider enslaving it OK?
No. Nor would I consider the creation of such an intelligence in the first place OK either.
Would you be willing to explain why?