Under the Microscope #12 – Brain cells from skin cells

28 February 2012
brain cells from skin cells Yichen Shi

brain cells from skin cells Yichen Shi

—Yichen Shi

This is a beautiful image of human brain cells, which can now be grown from adult skin cells.

Under the Microscope is a collection of videos that show glimpses of the natural and man-made world in stunning close-up. They are released every Monday and Thursday and you can see them here: io9.com.

Yichen Shi:
“Brain neural stem cells derived from human skin cells: these stem cells express typical marker genes of brain neocortical stem cells, such as Pax6 (Red fluorescent labeled), and form a rosette structure resembling the transection of the neural tube.”

The entire image is about 250 ’m across (a really thick bit of human hair).

More info:
http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/brain-cells-created-from-patients-skin-cells/

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurogenesis

Picture taken by Yichen Shi in the Livesey Lab
http://www.gurdon.cam.ac.uk/~liveseylab/fjlhome/index.html

Voice over by Fred Lewsey.

Music by Peter Nickalls: http://www.peternickalls.com