Precise control over neuron growth paves the way for repairing injuries, improving brain models

HSCI, a network of the nation’s top stem cell and regenerative medicine researchers, gathers to exchange ideas and forge new collaborations to advance biomedical research.

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Scientists have found ways of culturing organ-specific tissue from stem cells that could change the way diseases are studied and treated.

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Building on earlier work in which they disproved neurobiology dogma by “reprogramming” neurons — turning one form of neuron into another — in the brains of living animals, Harvard Stem Cell Institute researchers have now shown that the networks of communication among reprogrammed neurons and their neighbors can also be changed, or “rewired.”

The finding, by Paola Arlotta, a professor of...