Machine Learning Algorithm Can’t Distinguish These Lab Mini-Brains from Preemie Babies

Brain organoids in a laboratory dish.

Nine-month-old brains-in-a-dish and the brains of premature newborn babies generate similar electrical patterns, as captured by electroencephalogram (EEG) — the first time such brain activity has been achieved in a cell-based laboratory model

Brain organoids — also called mini-brains — are 3D cellular models that represent aspects of the human brain in the laboratory. Brain organoids help researchers track human development, unravel the molecular events that lead to disease and test new treatments. They aren’t prefect replicas, of course. Brain organoids do not replicate cognitive function, but researchers can check how an organoid’s physical structure or gene expression changes over time or as a result of a virus or drug.

University of California San Diego researchers have now taken brain organoids one step further, achieving an unprecedented level of neural network activity — electrical impulses that can be recorded by multi-electrode arrays. Using data from babies born up to three-and-a-half months premature, the team developed an algorithm to predict their age based upon EEG patterns. The algorithm then read lab-grown brain organoids the same way, and assigned them an age.

The electrical impulse pattern for nine-month-old brain organoids revealed similar features to those of a premature infant who had reached full-term (40 weeks gestation).

These new optimized brain organoids, described today’s Cell Stem Cell, may make it possible for researchers to study mental illnesses that aren’t caused by or result in overt physiological changes, but instead involve disturbances in brain cell network activity, such as autism or epilepsy. For many of these conditions, there are no relevant laboratory or animal models.

“We couldn’t believe it at first — we thought our electrodes were malfunctioning,” said co-senior author Alysson R. Muotri, PhD, professor of pediatrics and cellular and molecular medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine. “Because the data were so striking, I think many people were kind of skeptical about it, and understandably so.” Muotri led the study with Bradley Voytek, PhD, associate professor of cognitive science in the UC San Diego Division of Social Sciences.

Brain organoid construction begins with a perhaps surprising source: an adult skin sample. In the lab, researchers convert the skin cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Like most stem cells, with the right cocktail of molecular factors, iPSCs can be directed to specialize into any cell type. In this case, they become brain cells — different types of neurons and glia, for example.

At UC San Diego, brain organoids have been used to produce the first direct experimental proof that the Brazilian Zika virus can cause severe birth defects and to repurpose existing HIV drugs for a rare, inherited neurological disorder. Muotri and team also recently sent their brain organoids to the International Space Station to test microgravity’s effect on brain development — and maybe prospects for human life beyond Earth.

“Machine Learning Algorithm Can’t Distinguish These Lab Mini-Brains from Preemie Babies“

When I saw this NBC News report on Ernest P. Worrell from the 1980s, I knew I had to write about Ernest, one of the most unique advertising creations of the 20th century—and Jim Varney, the Shakespearean actor that made him sparkle with broad humor. Here’s what I wrote in today’s Tedium.

Thank you, Rutger. RIP

Can Empathy and Compassion be Taught?

That’s the idea behind the newly announced T. Denny Sanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion at UC San Diego. One of the many goals of the institute will be to design a compassion-focused curriculum for the UC San Diego School of Medicine based on developing new methods to protect and promote the well-being of current clinicians and their patients.

Towards that end, the institute will partner with the UC San Diego Student-Run Free Clinic, which has provided free comprehensive health care to San Diego’s underserved communities since 1997. These clinics, the largest of this type in the U.S. — there are currently five locations in San Diego — are run by medical students offering free care to those who need it most.

In this episode of N Equals One, Dr. Sunny Smith, co-medical director of the clinic, shares stories about the long-lasting impact on medical students who take this popular elective course — many students have said it’s their favorite part of their medical school experience — and her 20+ years at the clinic.

Loss of a gene 2 to 3 million years ago could be linked to why coronary events are so common in humans and so rare in other animals

Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine say the loss of a single gene two to three million years ago in our ancestors may have resulted in a heightened risk of cardiovascular disease in all humans as a species, while also setting up a further risk for red meat-eating humans. The findings published today in PNAS.

“The increased risk appears to be driven by multiple factors, including hyperactive white cells and a tendency to diabetes in the human-like mice,” said Ajit Varki, MD, Distinguished Professor Of Medicine and Cellular And Molecular Medicine. “This may help explain why even vegetarian humans without any other obvious cardiovascular risk factors are still very prone to heart attacks and strokes, while other evolutionary relatives are not.”

But in consuming red meat, humans are also repeatedly exposed to Neu5Gc, which researchers said prompts an immune response and chronic inflammation they call “xenosialitis.” In their tests, human-like mice modified to lack the CMAH gene were fed a Neu5Gc-rich, high-fat diet and subsequently suffered a further 2.4-fold increase in atherosclerosis, which could not be explained by changes in blood fats or sugars.

“The human evolutionary loss of CMAH likely contributes to a predisposition to atherosclerosis by both intrinsic and extrinsic (dietary) factors,” wrote the authors, “and future studies could consider using this more human-like model.”

“Evolutionary Gene Loss May Help Explain Why Only Humans are Prone to Heart Attacks“

A SCANNER DARKLY (2006)

The next time they tell you Americans are “happy” with their employer provided health insurance remember that that “happiness” is fueled by willful ignorance of what the alternatives are really like and fear of losing what little crappy health care they currently have.

Having experienced several other countries’ health care I am amazed and amused when Americans tell me that theirs is the best in the world…

Types of Headaches

I FEEL STRANGE

BLADE RUNNER (1982)

Dating in 2019 ft Dany

Oh wow this is our generation yupyupyup

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1925)

STRANGE ADVENTURES

The Great Gatsby (2013) dir. Baz Luhrmann

AKIRA (1988)