Scientists create brain tissue from human skin

London: British scientists are claiming a breakthrough after creating brain tissue from human skin.

London: The researchers wrote on the University of Cambridge website that their findings could speed up the hunt for new treatments for diseases of the cerebral cortex, such as epilepsy and autism, to neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease.

Initially, brain cells grown in this way could be used to help gain a better understanding of how the brain develops and what goes wrong when it is affected by disease.

Eventually, scientists hope the cells could be used to provide healthy tissue that can be implanted into patients to treat neurodegenerative diseases and brain damage.

The cerebral cortex is the part of the brain that is responsible for most of the high-level thought processes such as memory, language and consciousness.

While human brain cells have been created from stem cells before, this has relied upon embryonic stem cells. Attempts to make them from skin cells have produced neurons that are not found in the cerebral cortex.