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Article: Dead Brains Get Smart.(research on use of stem cells to grow brain cells)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Science World
- Article date:
- January 22, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Scholastic, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Wrap your brain around this: the newest and most promising hope to repair brain damage comes from dead brains! Too bizarre to believe? Neuroscientist (brain scientist) Fred Gage at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, Calif., doesn't think so.
Last November, Gage plucked fresh cells from human cadaver brains (10 hours to three days after death), stewed them in a lab dish, then grew them into brain cells called neurons (nerve cells that transmit electrical signals). "It's amazing," says Gage. "No one dreamed it would be possible to grow new brain cells."
The experiment marks a major medical breakthrough--normally the brain doesn't replenish neurons that die, ...