Recently, a friend pointed me to the news article linked here.

This news, while exciting, is also extremely scientific (i.e., hard to read). So, I offer you my summary of what it all means.

First of all, the article is about research done by the University of Wisconsin. Yet it has nothing to do with cheese, Leinenkugel’s, or the Green Bay Packers. I guess Wisconsin does science, too.

The big news is that researchers have found a way to use 3-D printers to print WORKING brain structures. If my understanding is correct (and I do have some questions), it works like this:

1. Neurons are grown from “induced pluripotent stem cells” (iPSCs). This is the term used for adult stem cells that have been triggered to act like embryonic stem cells. This means they are using stem cells that could be harvested from any adult human being – no embryo or fetus is involved.
2. These new brain cells are placed into a “bio-ink” (be careful where you put the hyphen in that term or you may end up discussing the sexual orientation of pigs). This bio-ink is the medium that delivers nutrients and oxygen to the new brain cells – essentially it performs the functions normally performed by blood and/or brain fluids.
3. The brain cells actually begin connecting to and communicating with each other, just like new brain cells in a human embryo.

Now you may be saying to yourself, “But Cedric, what does this all mean for Parkinson’s sufferers?” And if you are talking to yourself…and calling yourself Cedric…then you may be in serious need of psychological help. Believe me! I call myself Cedric, and I am in serious need of psychological help.

The reality is this: scientists have long known that neurons physically connect to one another and communicate through electrical and chemical signals. What they haven’t necessarily understood is exactly how these communications work. Part of the reason for this is the sheer complexity of the brain. The human brain contains about 86 billion neurons, and a typical neuron connects to 1,000 other neurons. This 3-D printing breakthrough enables scientists to create mini-brains with much more manageable numbers of neurons. This of course will make it easier to isolate and study specific aspects of brain functionality, ultimately leading to better understanding of how the brain works. And since Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is a brain-based disease, this better understanding of brain functions could lead to better and/or more permanent treatments for PD. And it doesn’t end with just learning. During the development of new drugs, these “printed brains” could serve as test subjects to determine whether the drug actually works, before moving on to testing it on animals or humans.

My ultimate hope, though the article doesn’t directly say anything about this, is some day they MIGHT be able to cure PD by removing brain cells that have died (the death of cells in a very specific part of the brain leads to PD), then “printing” and implanting replacements for the dead brain cells. Or maybe, just maybe, some day we’ll be able to round up all the truly stupid people in the world and print them each a new brain.