A breakthrough in transforming skin cells into brain cells

New Zealand researchers on September 27 claimed to have achieved a global breakthrough in the transformation of skin cells directly into undeveloped brain cells, or neurological prefixes.

Enlarged image of a nerve prefix.

The Brain Research Center of the University of Auckland announced that it is leading the world in developing a quick but effective process to directly convert skin cells into brain cells without going through the intermediate stage. transform into an embryonic stem cell.

The main researcher, Associate Professor Bronwen Connor said: "This is a significant improvement in stem cell research on a global scale. It has the potential to bring new insights into bases. Neuropathy such as Huntington, Parkinson and Alzheimer ".

This study allows scientists to take skin cells from patients with genetic diseases related to genetics and use these cells to create brain cells that will be affected by the disease. The study contributes to shedding light on the mechanisms of disease, "allowing us to test potential treatments on real brain cells and bring us closer to the ability to replace brain cells. harmed, " said Bronwen Connor.

It usually takes four months to transform skin cells into embryonic stem cells and then into neural prefixes, but it only takes 20 days to convert skin cells directly into nerve prefixes.

Moreover, the direct transformation method also solves the problem of tumor formation that may occur when using embryonic stem cells, opening up a bright prospect for future cell replacement treatments. .