How We’re Reverse Engineering the Human Brain in the Lab | Sergiu P. Pasca @TED #tedtalks #ted

We can today take any cell type

from any individual

and then push it back in time

to turn them into stem cells

and then guide those stem cells

to become any other cell type.

We take the stem cells,

we then aggregate them

so that they form spheres

or tiny balls of cells.

Move them into a special plate

where there is a kind of chemical soup.

And that chemical soup will

allow them turn into a brain organoid.

And when we put them together to form circuits,

they become “assembloids.”

This are not brains in a jar.

They're not some stepping stone

to a Frankenstein monster.

They have no blood flow,

they receive no meaningful inputs and outputs.

But at one point,

they may become more complex.

Assembloids could be key

to understanding how the human brain is built.

By allowing us to recreate

circuits of the human brain,

we will gain new insights

into human biology.

And this in itself will open a new era

in the treatment of brain disorders.