Lab-grown mini brains mimic Parkinson’s disease, researchers say

Researchers have grown miniature brains in laboratory dishes to mirror Parkinson’s disease, learn how it progresses and study new treatments, Duke-NUS Medical School announced Tuesday, in what was reported as a first-time feat.

"Recreating models of Parkinson’s disease in animal models is hard as these do not show the progressive and selective loss of neurons that produce the neurotransmitter dopamine, a major feature of Parkinson’s disease," Professor Ng Huck Hui, senior group leader at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research’s Genome Institute of Singapore, and senior co-author of the study, said in a statement posted Tuesday. "Another limitation is that experimental mouse models of Parkinson’s disease do not develop characteristic clumps of proteins called Lewy bodies, which are often seen in the brain cells of people with Parkinson’s disease and a type of progressive dementia known as Lewy body dementia."