Scientists Develop Brain-Like Structure to Improve Drug Safety Testing

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Oct 12, 2015

 

"UW scientists develop brain-like structure to improve drug safety testing

New way of developing tissue mimics brain function, has potential to eventually replace animal testing

 

University of Wisconsin scientists have created a structure that mimics brain function and may be used to determine the safety of pharmaceutical drugs and industrial chemicals.

 

Using a hydrogel, a gel-like substance that readily absorbs water and stem cells, UW and Morgridge Institute for Research scientists have been able to successfully create cellular structures that mimic how brain tissue functions, Michael Schwartz, an assistant scientist in biomedical engineering at UW, said."

 

https://badgerherald.com/news/2015/10/12/uw-scientists-develop-brain-like-structure-to-improve-drug-safety-testing/

 

 

Hydrogel mimics brain function?  Very cool. 

[[La...]]

Yes, very cool. I'm going to get some hydrogel and see if I can just exchange it for the messed up bits of my brain. Will let you know how it goes.....

 

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Okay, Lap, I laughed out loud for probably a full five minutes My first laugh of the day, so thank you for that!  This really is way cool stuff, isn't it?  Here, this part also really excites me, I wanna replace my poor tight muscles with some of this here gel.

 

      “The goal is to create various types of human tissues and then connect them to one another in a way that would be similar to how they connect in the body,”

 

And this part ...

 

      “We are using a synthetic material that we know is chemically the same every single time, and we can make hundreds of tissues.”

 

Just like the human brain and body, right, everyone's chemically exactly the same all of the time.

 

Okay, enough fun for tonight, I'm sure I must be missing something here, after all there are another ten universities also working on this project.  So there's that! 

[[La...]]

Reminds me of "The Bionic Man" from the 70s, I think. "We can re-build him, better than before...." Yup, just get some hydrogel and do a little switcheroo. I hope it's a nice colour too. How about purple?

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:laugh:

 

Or Rocky from Rocky Horror Picture Show.  After all, we are already living our own horror show, aren't we?