alchymista:

Genetic Parkinson’s Disease Brain Cells Made in Lab

American scientists have successfully manufactured human neurons which are exact replica of genetically caused Parkinson’s disease.

This means that scientists have now gained the ability to visualize and test to for the reasons these mutations in the parkin gene cause the degenerative disease in about 10%  of patients with Parkinson’s. In addition, these manufactured cells provide an excellent and accurate way for testing new treatments, which had previously been essentially impossible.

In a statement, Dr. Julie Feng, who led the study, said:

This is the first time that human dopamine neurons have ever been generated from Parkinson’s disease patients with parkin mutations. Before this, we didn’t even think about being able to study the disease in human neurons. The brain is so fully integrated. It’s impossible to obtain live human neurons to study.