TEXTO:
Programmable brain cells
Pluripotent stem cell research took off like a rocket
in 2012. After discovering that skin cells can be
genetically reprogrammed into stem cells, which can in
turn be reprogrammed into just about any cell in the
[5] human body, a team led by Sheng Ding at UCSF
managed to engineer a working network of newborn
neurons from a harvest of old skin cells. In other words,
the team didn’t just convert skin cells into stem cells,
then into neurons — they actually kept the batch of
[10] neurons alive and functional long enough to self-organize
into a primitive neural network. In the near future, it’s
likely that we’ll be treating many kinds of brain injuries
by growing brand-new neurons from other kinds of cells
in a patient’s own body. This is already close on the
[15] horizon for liver and heart cells — but the thought of
being able to technologically shape the re-growth of a
damaged brain is even more exciting.
PROGRAMMABLE brain cells. Disponível em: . Acesso em: 13 out. 2014.
About Sheng Ding’s study at UCSF, it’s correct to say that
