By Scarlett Mora age, 11
Scientists are growing miniature 3D brains from stem cells. These are called brain organoids. These mimic the structures and function of real brains but on a tiny scale. Research using brain organoids is helping scientists discover new medical treatments, study brain development, and reduce the demand for animal testing, according to Vox.
Brain organoids can mimic different regions of the brains like the cortex, retina, and cerebellum. With these organoids, researchers can learn about the formation, development, and treatment of diseases in specific individuals.
For example, researchers are looking at Alzheimer’s disease in organoids in order to understand where the disease is in the brain and then work to cure it. “Brain organoids are an incredibly valuable tool for studying neurological disorders. Understanding how schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease, and bipolar disorder develops at a cellular level enables scientists to find better targets for treatments,” writes Shayna Korol in Vox.
Another possible usage of brain organoids is powering computers with them. Working with brain organoids in computer science is an ongoing development.
There are ethical concerns about brain organoids. Some ethical questions that have come up are if it’s OK to place human organoids in an animal’s brain for research. Is it OK to place living brain organoids into a computer system? Can organoids feel pain? Can they become aware of themselves? Who, if anyone, should control this research? These are questions that have not been fully answered.
The human brain does not have pain receptors, according to Vox. However, we are still learning about organoids and don’t yet know what they experience, if anything.
Bioethicists are concerned that scientists are making something that they don’t understand and don’t know its aftereffects.
“We are talking about an organ that is at the seat of human consciousness. It’s the seat of personality and who we are,” says Insoo Hyun, a bioethicist at the Museum of Science, Boston.
“The mere existence of the pain pathway, I think, is enough to give a public perception problem that the organoid or the assembloid is suffering,” says Alta Charo, professor emerita of law and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, to NPR. “And yet, if the pathway that allows for this emotional aversion doesn’t exist, then there’s no suffering.”
Guo-li Ming, an organoid researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, thinks that it is too soon to worry if the organoid is conscious, because “we’re far from mimicking the brain activity in real human beings.”
This topic is important because scientists have not established who is in charge of limitations on research using organoids, and there may be ethical consequences because of that.
