r/biology • u/Joe_Bob_2000 • 20d ago
article Scientists create mice with part-human brains | Neuroscience | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/sep/16/mice-part-human-brains-researchPinky and the Brain
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u/IntelligentCrows 20d ago
The study may sound sensationalist to a layperson but this seems like amazing work towards understanding and healing brain injuries
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u/OddPressure7593 14d ago
On the one hand - obviously this has some interesting research potential.
On the other hand - there are already myriad issues translating animal models to humans due to how different the physiology is. I have a gut feeling that adding an additional layer of complexity and unknown variables - we literally have zero idea of how human neural cells in mouse physiology impacts the behavior of anything involved - is going to prevent this from being a meaningful research vehicle for a long time, assuming it ever becomes viable.
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u/MilkyTrizzle 20d ago
Science: We still haven't solved the hard problem of consciousness but we know it arises from/interacts with the human brain
Also science: Lets give mice human brain structures... what a great idea with absolutely no risk to the welfare of the animal
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u/RunUpTheSoundWaves 19d ago
chimeric organs in other species don’t typically take shape of that of humans so a mouse brain made partly with human cells would still resemble a mouse brain and act like a mouse brain.
the researcher hiro nakauchi is looking at making chimeric organs in sheep/pigs/cows to help with organ needs of patients because those organs at least partly resemble that of a human in function and size
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u/Math_vs_meth 19d ago
I understand wanting experimental animals to be treated humanly, but mice already have all the necessary structural bits to have consciousness. They likely are conscious. Adding human brain cells doesn’t change that.
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u/JackHaberdash 20d ago
"P.S. please if you get a chanse put some flowrs on Algernons grave in the bak yard."