Neuroscientist Mukhina spoke about experiments with a brain grown in a test tube

Director of the Institute of Fundamental Medicine, PIMU, Professor of the Department of Neurotechnology, UNN N.I. Lobachevsky Irina Mukhina told “Gazete.Ru”that the nervous tissue grown in the laboratory can be used for medical purposes, in particular, for testing bionic prostheses.

According to the specialist, at the moment it is important to understand how to steadily conduct signals between the prosthesis and the nerve, doing it safely, efficiently and for a long period. She explained that now it is possible to connect from 20 to 40 axons with electrodes, but many more cells are involved in information processing, and the more axons scientists learn to connect to electrodes, the more accurate the bionic prosthesis will be.

As the neuroscientist noted, the challenge is to find materials with a certain conductivity so that they can capture and transmit a signal of a very small area, which is micron, not centimeter, as it is now. In addition, Mukhina pointed out that researchers are trying to study the transmission of signals in neuronal tissues under various pathological conditions using a laboratory mini-brain.

The expert clarified that scientists are modeling various metabolic changes at the level of the whole brain in vitro. Mukhina added that this is a common method that is used to study the mechanisms of treatment or the formation of diseases. She stressed that this is a large layer of work, and many scientists are working on it.